New Delhi: An expert group constituted by United Nations (UN) Secretary General Antonio Guterres delivered a set of recommendations that makes it harder for corporations to pledge net zero emissions without action, weeding out weak promises and greenwashing.
The recommendations were launched Tuesday at the ongoing COP27 climate change summit in Egypt’s Sharm el-Sheikh by a High‐Level Expert Group on the Net Zero Emissions Commitments of Non-State Entities. Titled ‘Integrity Matters’, the guidelines aim to infuse a sense of transparency and accountability to net zero pledges by businesses, cities, financial institutions and regions.
“Using bogus ‘net zero’ pledges to cover up massive fossil fuel expansion is reprehensible. It is rank deception. This toxic cover-up could push our world over the climate cliff. The sham must end,” Guterres said at the launch of the report, referring to the worrying trend of fossil-backed corporations making net zero pledges without taking meaningful action.
Net zero means removing as many greenhouse gas emissions as are produced. But companies that buy cheap credits to offset their carbon footprints or continue to invest in new fossil fuel supply cannot claim net zero, the expert group said.
“The group recommends that non-state actors set out clear targets and pathways, but also deliver on absolute emissions reductions by their own efforts,” Arunabha Ghosh, one of the expert members and CEO of the India-based Council on Energy, Environment and Water, said.
He added: “At the same time, actions towards net zero must also result in far greater climate investment in sustainable infrastructure in developing countries, and deliver positive social and economic outcomes for vulnerable communities.”
The 17-member expert group consulted with hundreds of individuals and organisations to arrive at its formula, said Catherine McKenna, former Canadian Minister of Environment and Climate Change and chair of the group, at the launch.
“This is about cutting emissions, not corners. Our roadmap provides clear standards and criteria that must be followed when developing net zero commitments. Right now, the planet cannot afford delays, excuses, or more greenwashing,” she said in a statement.
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‘Shouldn’t rely on cheap carbon credits’
The group makes a set of 10 recommendations to weed out greenwashing.
Entities must make their pledges publically, and their pledges must “contain stepping stone targets for every five years”, as well as set out concrete ways to reach net zero in line with the recommendations of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
The latest series of reports by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has said the world must achieve net zero emissions by 2050 to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees above pre-industrial levels to avoid climate catastrophe, and illustrates how this goal can be kept alive, which involves deep cuts in emissions.
According to the expert group, non-state entities pledging net zero should not rely on cheap carbon credits “lacking integrity” to offset their emissions, apart from lobbying “for positive climate action and not against it”.
Teresa Anderson, global lead on climate justice at ActionAid International, said she was “pleasantly surprised” by the high bar set by the guidelines.
“We’ve seen so many different proliferating net zero standards. Offsetting has allowed the world’s biggest climate criminals to claim net zero, but these recommendations give very little space to that,” Anderson told ThePrint.
The Net Zero Tracker found that, as of June 2022, while more than one-third of the world’s largest publicly traded companies had net zero targets, 65 per cent did not yet meet minimum procedural reporting standards.
The Net Zero tracker is a collaboration that aims to increase transparency and accountability of net zero targets.
The expert group recommends non-state actors must make progress reports on their net zero pledges public, “in a way that can be compared with the baseline they set”, apart from independently verifying the results and adding them to the UNFCCC Global Climate Action Portal.
“Fossil fuel companies have the money and resources to fund this transition many times over, but they chose not to. These guidelines show that they can no longer just put two words together and then claim that they’re a leader. You have to do much more, show your evidence, line your plans, a set a much higher bar,” Anderson said.
(Edited by Poulomi Banerjee)
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