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Climate pledges from top companies crumble under scrutiny

Study reviewing commitments from 25 high-profile businesses highlights the urgent need for a thorough system to evaluate industry’s promises.
  1. Jeff Tollefson
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In the run-up to the United Nations climate summit in Glasgow, UK, last year, many of the world’s most powerful businesses joined governments in pledging to reduce their carbon emissions to zero in the coming decades. But an analysis of publicly available corporate documents, such as annual sustainability reports, shows that 25 of those companies — which together are responsible for about 5% of global emissions — are actually making much less of a commitment.

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doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-022-00366-2

Updates & Corrections

  • Update 09 February 2022: And earlier version of this story said that the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi) has rated the near-term climate pledges of more than 300 companies as being compatible with a goal of limiting global warming to 1.5 °C above pre-industrial temperatures. SBTi has since updated that number to nearly 800 companies.

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