That is the conclusion drawn by experts from the NewClimate Institute in their analysis of decarbonsiation policies adopted by corporations responsible for 5 % of world-wide emissions (2.7 gigatonnes of CO2).
The research concerned statements by 25 major international corporations working in various sectors and geographic regions, including Amazon, Google, Hitachi, IKEA, Volkswagen, BMW Groups, DHL, E.ON, Nestlé and Unilever, among others.
Only three companies – Maersk, Vodafone and Deutsche Telekom – have issued announcements about achieving “net zero” emissions that were assessed as “having reasonable integrity” and “moderate” integrity. Statements issued by 10 companies were described as having “low integrity” and statements from the remaining 12 companies had “very low” integrity.
The main declarations concerning the undertakings of Amazon, Enel, GlaxoSmithKline, Google, Hitachi, IKEA, Vale, Volkswagen and Walmart were found to be untrue. And the undertakings of Accenture, BMW Group, Carrefour, CVS Health, Deutsche Post DHL, E.ON SE, JBS, Nestlé, Novartis, Saint-Gobain and Unilever contain a very low level of integrity.
According to the findings of the research, all the measures undertaken for decarbonisation as presented by the corporations, may yield not a 100 reduction in CO2 emissions, but only 40 %. And many promises advanced by the companies are undermined by questionable plans for reducing emissions from their partners or contractors, concealed key information and bookkeeping tricks.
Only three of the 25 companies – Maersk, Vodafone and Deutsche Telekom – have a clear plan on achieving the aims of reducing more than 90 % of emissions throughout the value chain. At least five companies could effectively reduce their emissions by 15 %, but by often by excluding emissions of other participants in the value chain.
Reductions In emissions in the context of the production chain were analysed in three stages. In the first stage, at issue are emissions produced directly by the company’s plant. The second stage involves third-part emissions associated with generation of electricity bought by the company. And the third stage is indirect emissions originating with the suppliers of components. The third stage accounts for 87% of the emissions of the 25 companies undergoing analysis.
Monitoring and reducing the third category of emissions is a difficult task as this only depends indirectly on a company’s efforts. It is by no means a coincidence that ExxonMobil announced in January a plan for achieving carbon neutrality involving only the first two categories of emissions. ExxonMobil explained its decision by saying that third category emissions offer no real notion of progress in the process of decarbonisation.
