More and more companies commit to climate neutrality or net zero by a certain year. Corporates now have climate strategies and targets which are public and which include pledges that appear to significantly reduce, or even eliminate their contributions to global warming.
Although, instead of reaching this goal, the corporates will only manage a reduction of 40% of their carbon emissions. Only 3 of the 25 companies (Deutsche Telekom, Vodafone and Maersk) clearly commit to a emission reduction of 90%. The Corporate Climate Responsibility Monitor 2022 is rating 25 big concern’s headline climate pledges. It focuses on four areas of corporate climate action. Tracking of emissions, setting reduction targets, reducing own emissions, and taking responsibility for unavoidable emissions through climate contributions or offsetting are the four focus points. Companies are chosen by their revenue (around 3.2 trillion USD in 2020) and by their amount of emissions (2.7 GtCO2e).
According to the report, the climate neutrality strategies are lacking ambitious goals, critical information is withheld and accounting tricks are used. A bad performance in the rating does not have to indicate a weak climate strategy but can also be caused by a lack of transparency, the report states.
As the result of the ranking, Maersk performed best at the “Reasonable Integrity” level. The climate promises made by Apple, Sony and Vodafone are rated “Moderate Integrity”. Amazon, Deutsche Telekom and Volkswagen among others, follow in the “Low Integrity” ranking level. And with “Very Low Integrity” the climate strategies of e.g. BMW, Deutsche Post, E.ON and Nestlé, are rated.
Encompassing measures for reducing the emissions is key for ambitious corporate climate targets. But also being transparent is an important point.
For more information on Net Zero, compensation or climate strategy take a look at the DFGE solution. If you have further questions, please contact us via or by phone at +49 8192-99733-20.
Sources:
Day T., Mooldijk S., et.AL.: Corporate Climate Responsibility Monitor 2022. NewClimate Institute 2022
