Another 20 companies have joined The Climate Pledge, a public commitment to ‘go green’ launched by Amazon and Jeff Bezos in 2019. The new signatories announced Wednesday, including, there are 53 companies in 12 countries that have joined.
IMB is the most popular company of the latest group. It announced its agenda on Tuesday to achieve a net zero emission of greenhouse gases by 2030. ‘Net zero’ means that the greenhouse gases emitted are equivalent to those removed.
To reach ‘net zero’, IBM will reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 65% by 2025 compared to 2010 emissions, 75% renewable energy use in 2025 and 90% renewable energy by 2030 and carbon capture or other technologies to remove greenhouse gases which is equal to the “residual emissions”, says the computer giant.
IBM has been releasing its carbon emissions since 1995 and in 2019 became a founding member of the Climate Leadership Council, an international policy institute working for a plan to levy a carbon tax and return the proceeds to citizens as cash payments. .
Joining The Climate Pledge will not bring down IBM’s profits – ‘Not at all’, says Wayne S. Balta, chief sustainability officer at IBM.
“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. That’s the core of sustainability,” he says.
“We can use data and [artificial intelligence] and computers to help in the fight against climate change. The IBM research division, for example, uses these technologies to accelerate the discovery of materials that can help remove carbon from the atmosphere, ‘says Balta.
The other companies that sign The Climate Pledge announced on Wednesday and cover all industries and include the logistics company Vanderlande; UPM, a forestry industry that offers renewable and recyclable alternatives to fossil-based materials and products; reusable liquor company MiiR; Johnson Controls, which sells equipment and software to regulate the internal environment of buildings; Iceland Foods, a retailer focused on eliminating disposable plastic; and Daabon, which produces and processes organic crops.
Companies already committed to this include Microsoft, Unilever, JetBlue Airways, Uber, Rivian, Best Buy, Mercedes-Benz and Verizon.
Bezos and Amazon launched The Climate Pledge in September 2019 to entice companies to publicly commit to the Paris climate agreement in 2040, ten years before the official 2050 target of the agreement. (Bezos is currently the CEO of Amazon, but he announced earlier in February that he would step down as CEO of the Board later this year.)
“We’re done with the herd on this issue – we’ve 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 as much physical infrastructure as Amazon – which produces more than 10 billion items a year – can abide by the Paris Agreement ten years early, then any company can do it.”
Bezos unveiled The Climate Pledge amid public criticism from employees urging Amazon to reduce its carbon footprint (and a day before some employees planned to step out 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 them on a “regular basis.”
- ‘Decarbonize’ operations through a combination of ‘efficiency improvements, renewable energy, material reduction and other carbon emission elimination strategies.’
- Buy ‘additional, quantifiable, real, permanent and socially beneficial offsets’ for any carbon emissions that a company cannot operate 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 chains,” says Bezos. “So, we have to work together, and we want to use our scale and our scope to lead the way. We know it’s going to be challenging. But we know we can do it – and we have to.”
The Climate Pledge is a co-founder of Amazon and Global Optimism, a political and strategic advisory organization that aims to catalyze actions to reduce global carbon emissions. Global optimism is co-founder of former UN climate chief Christiana Figueres and former chief political strategist for the Paris Agreement, Tom Rivett-Carnac.
In general, public statements of intent are useful. “These voluntary pledges help move businesses in the right direction,” Michael Gerrard, an environmental lawyer and professor at Columbia Law School, told CNBC Make It.
“Yes, corporate promises with specific actions and reporting for which they can be held accountable are helpful in creating real change,” said Tensie Whelan, a professor at the NYU Stern School of Business and the director of the NYU Stern Center for Sustainable Business, tells CNBC Make It. “The elements of this promise, such as a broad net zero target by 2040, reporting, carbon offsets and carbon reports, are critical to the transformation we need.”
A company that signed on to a promise like Amazon’s does put it under scrutiny.
“While a mere promise does not guarantee that they will do everything right from an environmental perspective, it does mean that they have investigated and are therefore much more likely to move society towards a low-carbon future,” said Dan Esty, professor in Environmental Law and Policy at Yale University, tells CNBC Make It.
However, the Climate Pledge is also not a panacea, says Whelan. “This promise is not linked to scientific targets, but is not related to raising warming below 2 degrees and does not determine how companies should set their targets, which could lead to a poor target setting,” Whelan told CNBC Make It. “Companies can choose to focus most of their efforts on carbon offsets, for example, toward reducing their emissions.” (Noteworthy: “Amazon has committed itself to science-based targets,” says Whelan.)
On this, Amazon says that “carbon acceleration” is only one part of the promise. “Offsets or nature-based solutions play a vital, complementary and critical role in addition to carbon dioxide business operations,” the company says. And while ‘setting a scientific goal is not a requirement to join’, The Climate Pledge encourages signatories to do so: ‘We believe that setting a scientific goal is a best practice. ‘
Uniformity will also make the promise more meaningful. “It will have an even bigger impact if they use uniform measurement and reporting methods, so we know we are comparing apples to apples in the results of different companies,” says Gerrard.
Indeed, The Climate Pledge allows the report form to the signatory. “Signatories must report publicly, within a cadence that determines them, and follow best reporting practices to bring accountability to their stakeholders,” says The Climate Pledge. The pledge has also partnered with CDP, a non-profit charity that manages the global disclosure system for investors, companies, cities, states and regions to manage their environmental impact and will help signatories connect with CDP.
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