Another 20 companies have joined The Climate Pledge, a public commitment to “go green” launched by Amazon and Jeff Bezos in 2019. Including the new signatories announced on Wednesday, there are 53 companies in 12 countries that have joined.
The most visible company in the latter group is IMB. It announced on Tuesday its agenda to achieve “net zero” in greenhouse gas emissions by 2030. “Net zero” means that the greenhouse gases emitted are equivalent to those that are removed.
To achieve “net zero”, IBM will reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 65% by 2025 compared to its emissions in 2010, use 75% of electricity with renewable energy by 2025 and 90% of renewable electricity by 2030 and use carbon capture or other technologies to remove greenhouse gases equal to their “residual emissions”, says the computing giant.
IBM has been disclosing its carbon emissions since 1995 and in 2019 became a founding member of the Climate Leadership Council, an international policy institute that advocates a plan to charge a carbon tax and return the product to citizens as payments in cash.
Joining The Climate Pledge will not decrease IBM’s bottom line – “In no way,” says Wayne S. Balta, Director of Sustainability at IBM.
“In general, innovating to face climate change and other aspects of environmental sustainability represents 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 computing to help fight climate change. For example, IBM’s Research Division is using these technologies to accelerate the discovery of materials that can help remove carbon from the atmosphere, “says Balta.
The other companies that subscribe to The Climate Pledge announced on Wednesday cover all types of sectors and include the logistics company Vanderlande; UPM, a forestry 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 committed to the Commitment include Microsoft, Unilever, JetBlue Airways, Uber, Rivian, Best Buy, Mercedes-Benz and Verizon.
Bezos and Amazon launched The Climate Pledge in September 2019 to induce companies to publicly commit to the Paris Climate Agreement in 2040, 10 years before the agreement’s official 2050 target. (Bezos is currently the CEO of Amazon, but announced in early February that he would transition to Executive Chairman of the Board later this year.)
“We stopped being in the middle of the herd on this issue – we decided to use our size and scale to make a difference,” said Bezos, in a statement on The Climate Pledge website. “If a company with as much physical infrastructure as Amazon – which delivers more than 10 billion items a year – can comply with the Paris Agreement 10 years earlier, then any company can.”
Bezos revealed The Climate Pledge in the face of public criticism from employees asking Amazon to reduce its carbon footprint (and the day before, some employees planned to leave as part of the Global Climate Strike).
For a company, signing The Climate Pledge means agreeing to do three things:
- Measure greenhouse gas emissions and report “regularly”.
- “Decarbonize” operations through a combination of “efficiency improvements, renewable energy, reduced materials and other carbon emission elimination strategies”.
- Buy “additional, quantifiable, real, permanent and socially beneficial offsets” for any carbon emissions that a company cannot operationally eliminate by 2040.
“Achieving these goals is really just something that can be done in collaboration with other big companies, because we are all part of each other’s supply chain,” says Bezos. “So we have to work together and we want to use our scale and scope to lead the way. We know it will be a challenge. But we know we can do this – and we have to do it.”
Climate Pledge was co-founded by Amazon and Global Optimism, which is a political and strategic consulting organization with the aim of catalyzing actions to reduce global carbon emissions. Global Optimism was co-founded by former UN Climate Chief Christiana Figueres and former Paris Agreement political strategist Tom Rivett-Carnac.
Generally speaking, public statements of intent are useful. “These voluntary pledges 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 to specific actions and reporting for which they can be held responsible are useful in creating real change,” Tensie Whelan, a professor at the NYU Stern School of Business and director of the NYU Stern Center for Sustainable Business, told CNBC Make It. “The elements of this promise, like a broad net zero target by 2040, reporting, carbon elimination and carbon offsets, are essential for the transformation we need ”.
A company that signs a Commitment like Amazon’s puts it under a microscope.
“While a mere promise does not guarantee that they will do everything right from an environmental point of view, it does mean that they have requested scrutiny and are therefore much more likely to work to move society towards a low-carbon future,” Dan Esty, professor of environmental policy and law at Yale University, says CNBC Make It.
However, Climate Pledge is also not a panacea, says Whelan. “This commitment is not linked to scientific goals linked to keeping the warming below 2 degrees and does not define how companies should determine their goals, which can lead to weak goal setting,” Whelan told CNBC Make It. companies could choose to focus most of their efforts on carbon offsetting, for example, instead of reducing their emissions. ” (Noteworthy: “Amazon itself has committed to science-based goals,” says Whelan.)
To that end, Amazon says “carbon offsets” are just one component of the Commitment. “Compensations or solutions based on nature play a necessary, complementary and critical role along with the decarbonization of business operations”, says the company. And while “setting a science-based goal is not a requirement to join,” The Climate Pledge encourages signatories to do so: “We believe that setting a science-based goal is a best practice.”
Uniformity would make the Oath more meaningful as well. “They would have an even greater impact if they used uniform measurement and reporting methods to let us know that we are comparing apples to apples when looking at the results of different companies,” says Gerrard.
In fact, The Climate Pledge leaves the report format to the signatory. “Signatories must report publicly, at the rate they determine, and follow best reporting practices to achieve accountability to their stakeholders,” says The Climate Pledge. In addition, Pledge has partnered with CDP, a non-profit charity that manages the global disclosure system for investors, companies, cities, states and regions to manage their environmental impacts and will help signatories establish contact with CDP.
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