Several environmental experts warn that major multinational companies are falling short of their commitments to cut harmful emissions. This assessment is echoed by AFP and reinforced by recent analyses from Carbon Market Watch and the NewClimate Institute. In recent years, under pressure from investors, regulators, and consumers, many businesses have shown ambitious plans to curb carbon dioxide emissions. U.N. experts warn that by 2030 global greenhouse gas emissions must be slashed by 45 percent and that net zero should be achieved, meaning any remaining emissions would be balanced or removed from the atmosphere. In Western media the term clean zero is increasingly used to describe efforts to stop emissions or to offset them through atmospheric removal.
Analysts say that 22 large companies that have pledged reductions intend to cut their collective emissions by only about 15 percent by 2030.
Leading voices from the Corporate Climate Responsibility Monitor say that the vast majority of these plans fall short of their promises. Carbon Market Watch finds that many firms present vague or misleading clean zero commitments to polish their public image while maintaining business as usual.
Maersk, the shipping giant, receives the strongest overall assessment for its plan to achieve carbon neutrality by 2040, which researchers regard as a credible approach. Eight other corporate heavyweights, including Apple, Google, Microsoft, and the steel producer ArcelorMittal, are judged to have plans that are satisfactory in good faith.
Conversely, 11 major companies, among them American Airlines, Samsung Electronics, Carrefour, and the meat processor JBS, are seen as engaging in unscrupulous practices. Several of these firms dispute that assessment.
In a different vein, scientists report a two faced catalyst breakthrough for hydrogen production, marking a potential development in the energy transition that could influence future fuel technologies.