Another 20 companies have joined The Climate Pledge, a public commitment to “become green” launched by Amazon and Jeff Bezos in 2019. Including the new signatories announced on Wednesday, there are 53 companies from 12 countries that have joined.
The best known company in the last group is IMB. It announced on Tuesday its agenda to achieve “zero zero” greenhouse gas emissions by 2030. “Net zero” means that the greenhouse gases emitted are equivalent to those eliminated.
To achieve ‘net zero’, IBM will reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 65% by 2025 compared to its 2010 emissions, use 75% renewable electricity by 2025 and 90% renewable electricity by 2025. 2030 and will use carbon capture or other greenhouse gas removal technologies equal to its “residual emissions”, says the IT giant.
IBM unveils its 1995 carbon emissions and in 2019 became a founding member of the Climate Leadership Council, an international policy institute that advocates for a plan to levy a carbon tax and reimburse citizens’ income as payments in cash.
Joining the Climate Pledge will not lower IBM’s profit – “Not at all,” says Wayne S. Balta, IBM’s Chief Sustainability Officer.
“In general, innovation to address climate change and other aspects of environmental sustainability is a business opportunity that also helps the planet. Good for the economy, good for the environment. This is the essence of sustainability,” he says.
“We can use data and [artificial intelligence] and computers to help fight climate change. For example, IBM’s research division uses these technologies to accelerate the discovery of materials that could help remove carbon from the atmosphere, “says Balta.
The other companies that sign The Climate Pledge announced on Wednesday that they cover all types of industries and include the logistics company Vanderlande; UPM, a forest industry company that offers renewable and recyclable alternatives to fossil-based materials and products; reusable beverage company MiiR; Johnson Controls, which sells equipment and software to regulate the internal environment of buildings; Iceland Foods, a retailer focused on disposing of disposable plastics; and Daabon, which produces and processes organic crops.
Companies already engaged in the engagement include Microsoft, Unilever, JetBlue Airways, Uber, Rivian, Best Buy, Mercedes-Benz and Verizon.
Bezos and Amazon launched The Climate Pledge in September 2019 to get companies publicly committed to fulfilling the Paris Climate Agreement in 2040, 10 years before the official goal of the 2050 agreement. (Bezos is currently CEO of Amazon, but he announced in early February that he would move to the executive chairman of the board later this year.)
“We ended up being in the middle of the workforce on this issue – we decided to use our size and scale to make a difference,” Bezos said in a statement on The Climate Pledge’s website. “If a company with physical infrastructure as large as Amazon – which delivers more than 10 billion items a year – can fulfill the Paris Agreement 10 years earlier, then any company can.”
Bezos revealed The Climate Pledge in the face of public criticism of employees calling on Amazon to reduce its carbon footprint (and the day before, some employees were planning to go out as part of the Global Climate Strike).
For a company, signing The Climate Pledge means agreeing to do three things:
- Measure and report greenhouse gas emissions on a regular basis.
- “Decarbonise” operations through a combination of “efficiency improvements, renewable energy, material reductions and other carbon sequestration strategies”.
- Purchase “additional, quantifiable, real, permanent and socially beneficial offsets” for any carbon emissions that a company cannot eliminate operationally by 2040.
“Achieving these goals is really just something that can be done in collaboration with other large companies, because we are all part of each other’s supply chains,” says Bezos. “So we have to work together and we want to use our scale and scope to pave the way. We know it will be a challenge. But we know we can do it – and we have to. ”
Climate Pledge was co-founded by Amazon and Global Optimism, which is a political and strategic consulting organization that aims to catalyze actions to reduce global carbon emissions. Global Optimism was co-founded by former UN climate chief Christiana Figueres and former Paris political chief strategist Tom Rivett-Carnac.
Broadly speaking, public statements of intent are useful. “These voluntary promises help move corporations in the right direction,” Michael Gerrard, an environmental lawyer and professor at Columbia Law School, told CNBC Make It.
“Yes, corporate commitments with specific actions and reporting for which they can be held accountable are useful in creating real change,” said Tensie Whelan. a professor at the NYU Stern School of Business and director of the NYU Stern Center for Sustainable Business, says CNBC Make It. “Elements of this commitment, such as a broad zero-net target by 2040, reporting, carbon sequestration and carbon offsets, are key to the transformation we need.”
A company that connects to an Amazon-like commitment puts it under the microscope.
“While a simple commitment does not guarantee that they will do well from an environmental perspective, it means they have called for control and are therefore more likely to work to move society into a low-carbon future,” said Dan. Esty, a professor of environmental law and policy at Yale University, tells CNBC Make It.
However, climate commitment is no panacea, says Whelan. “This commitment is not related to science-related targets related to keeping warming below 2 degrees and not defining how companies should set their goals, which can lead to weak targets,” Whelan told CNBC Make It . “Companies could choose to focus most of their efforts on carbon offsets, for example, compared to reducing their emissions.” (Note: “Amazon itself is committed to achieving science-based goals,” says Whelan.)
For this, Amazon says that “carbon offsets” are just one component of the Pledge. “Nature-based compensation or solutions play a necessary, complementary and critical role along with decarbonizing business operations,” the company says. And while “setting a science-based target is not a requirement for membership,” Climate Pledge encourages signatories to do so: “We believe that setting a science-based target is a good practice.”
The uniformity would also make the Pledge more significant. “It would have an even greater impact if they used uniform measurement and reporting methods, so that we know that we are comparing apples to apples, analyzing the results of different companies,” says Gerrard.
Indeed, The Climate Pledge leaves the reporting format to the signatory. “Signatories should report publicly, at a rate that they determine, and follow best reporting practices to gain accountability from stakeholders,” says Climate Pledge. The Commitment has also partnered with CDP, a non-profit charity that manages the global outreach system for investors, companies, cities, states and regions to manage its environmental impact and will help signatories liaise with CDP.
See also:
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