More than 60% of the world’s largest publicly traded companies are now committed to carbon neutrality, according to research consortium Net Zero Tracker. Despite this progress, few have a credible plan to achieve it.
Last year, this consortium, which brings together three research institutes, calculated that barely 50% of the companies studied – there are nearly 2,000 of them – were committed to decarbonizing their activities. This year, the figure is more than 60%.
Despite this apparent good news, most large companies continue to emit greenhouse gases, which they mask by resorting to carbon offsets. On paper, this allows them to reduce their footprint to zero, for example by financing reforestation.
Preliminary measures
For Celia Sapart, climatologist and scientific director at CO2 Value Europe, companies should first implement real measures to reduce their emissions. “There are a whole bunch of measures that need to be taken first. These are measures of sobriety, energy efficiency measures, efficiency in terms of material use,” Celia Sapart explained on Tuesday in La Matinale de la RTS.
“We really need to reduce emissions by moving towards more renewables, towards low-carbon energies. And the last solution, when we cannot reduce more than a certain level, is possibly to do carbon offsetting,” continues the researcher.
Calculating your carbon footprint
For the climatologist, companies that commit to reducing their emissions must also start by quantifying their carbon footprint. “You first have to be able to count it in order to then also know where to act.”
“And it is sometimes very complicated to properly account for greenhouse gas emissions. But now, companies will increasingly be obliged to do so.”
Despite pressure from shareholders, it is increasingly stringent environmental rules that will push the world’s largest groups to reduce their emissions in the coming years, rather than seeking to offset them.
Virginie Langerock/asch
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