What do Unilever PLC, Alphabet Inc.¡¯s Google and Amazon.com Inc. have in common? Their net-zero promises do not add up to net zero, a new report says.
It¡¯s not just these three companies, either. The report, published by the New Climate Institute and Carbon Market Watch, finds that 25 of the world¡¯s most valuable companies, which together accrued $3.2 trillion in revenues in 2020 and accounted for 5% of global greenhouse-gas emissions in 2019, have climate plans that are weaker than how they¡¯ve been marketed so far.
The report says that nearly half of the 25 businesses, including Nestle SA and JBS SA, don¡¯t have specific commitments to reduce emissions by their target net-zero year. The remaining 13 plan to cut emissions across the value chain by 40% on average, rather than fully axe them as their pledges suggest. A.P. Moller-Maersk A/S, Vodafone Group PLC and Deutsche Telekom AG are the only ones on track to near-complete decarbonization, the authors find.
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