Another 20 companies joined The Climate Pledge, a public pledge to “go green” launched by Amazon and Jeff Bezos in 2019. Including the new signatories announced Wednesday, 53 companies in 12 countries have joined. .
The most controversial company of the newest group is IMB. It announced its agenda on Tuesday to achieve “net zero” greenhouse gas emissions by 2030. “Net zero” means that the greenhouse gas emissions are equal to the emissions that are removed.
To reach ‘net zero’, IBM will reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 65% by 2025 compared to 2010 emissions, use 75% electricity from renewables by 2025 and 90% electricity from renewables by 2030, and carbon capture or other technologies to remove greenhouse gases that are equal to the ‘residual emissions’, says the computer giant.
IBM has been publishing its CO2 emissions since 1995 and in 2019 became a founding member of the Climate Leadership Council, an international policy institute advocating a plan to charge a fee for CO2 emissions and the proceeds to citizens refundable as cash payments.
Participating in The Climate Pledge will not lower IBM’s earnings – “Not at all,” said Wayne S. Balta, IBM’s chief sustainability officer.
“Overall, innovating to address climate change and other aspects of environmental sustainability presents a business opportunity that also helps the planet. Good for the economy, good for the environment. That’s the essence of sustainability,” he says.
“We can use data and [artificial intelligence] and computers to help fight climate change. For example, the IBM Research Division uses these technologies to accelerate the discovery of materials that could help remove carbon from the atmosphere, ”says Balta.
The other companies to sign The Climate Pledge include all types of industries Wednesday, including logistics company Vanderlande; UPM, a forestry company that offers renewable and recyclable alternatives to fossil-based materials and products; MiiR, a reusable beverage company; Johnson Controls, which sells equipment and software to regulate the internal environment of buildings; Iceland Foods, a retailer focused on eliminating single-use plastics; and Daabon, which produces and processes organic crops.
Companies already committed to the pledge include Microsoft, Unilever, JetBlue Airways, Uber, Rivian, Best Buy, Mercedes-Benz and Verizon.
Bezos and Amazon launched The Climate Pledge in September 2019 to push companies to publicly commit to the 2040 Paris climate agreement, 10 years ahead of the agreement’s official 2050 target. (Bezos is currently the CEO of Amazon, but he announced earlier in February that he would transition to executive chairman of the board later this year.)
“We’re already in the fold in this field – we’ve decided to use our size and scale to make a difference,” Bezos said in a statement posted on The Climate Pledge’s website. “If a company with as much physical infrastructure as Amazon – delivering more than 10 billion items per year – can comply with the Paris Agreement 10 years earlier, any company can.”
Bezos unveiled The Climate Pledge in light of public criticism from employees calling on Amazon to reduce its carbon footprint (and the day before, some employees had planned to walk away as part of the Global Climate Strike).
For a company, signing The Climate Pledge means agreeing to three things:
- Measure greenhouse gas emissions and report them “regularly”.
- Work to “decarbonise” through a combination of “efficiencies, renewable energy, material reduction and other strategies to eliminate carbon emissions”.
- Buy “additional, quantifiable, real, permanent, and socially beneficial offsets” for any carbon emissions that a business cannot operationally eliminate by 2040.
“Achieving these goals is really only something that can be done in partnership with other large companies, because we are all part of each other’s supply chains,” Bezos says. “So we have to work together, and we want to use our scale and scope to lead the way. We know it’s going to be challenging. But we know we can – and we have to.”
The Climate Pledge was co-founded by Amazon and Global Optimism, a political and strategic advisory organization that aims to take action to reduce global carbon emissions. Global Optimism was co-founded by former UN climate chief Christiana Figueres and former chief political strategist for the Paris Agreement, Tom Rivett-Carnac.
Broadly speaking, public letters of intent are useful. “These voluntary commitments help move businesses in the right direction,” Michael Gerrard, an environmental attorney and professor at Columbia Law School, told CNBC Make It.
“Yes, business commitments with specific actions and reports on which they can be held accountable are helpful in driving real change,” said Tensie Whelan. a professor at NYU Stern School of Business and the director of the NYU Stern Center for Sustainable Business, tells CNBC Make It. “The elements of this pledge, such as a broad 2040 net zero target, reporting, carbon elimination and carbon offset, are critical to the transformation we need.”
A company that signs a pledge like Amazon’s is taking a closer look.
“While a mere promise does not guarantee that they will do everything right from an environmental perspective, it means they have asked for further research and are thus much more likely to work to move society towards a low-carbon future,” said Dan Esty, professor of environmental law policy at Yale University, CNBC tells Make It.
However, the Climate Pledge isn’t a panacea either, says Whelan. “This promise is not tied to science-based goals related to keeping global warming below 2 degrees and does not define how companies should set their targets, which could lead to weak targets,” Whelan told CNBC Make It. “Companies could choose to focus most of their efforts on carbon offsetting, for example, instead of reducing their emissions.” (Note: “Amazon is committed to science-based goals,” Whelan says.)
On this, Amazon says that “carbon offsets” are just one part of the promise. “Offsets or nature-based solutions play a necessary, complementary, and critical role in addition to decarbonising business operations,” the company says. And while “setting a science-based goal is not a requirement to become a member,” The Climate Pledge encourages signatories to do so: “We believe that setting a science-based goal is a best practice.”
Uniformity would also make the promise more meaningful. “They 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 by looking at the results of different companies,” said Gerrard.
The Climate Pledge does indeed leave the reporting format to the discretion of the signatory. “Signatories must report publicly, at a pace determined by them, and follow best reporting practices to be accountable to their stakeholders,” said The Climate Pledge. The Pledge is also partnering with CDP, a not-for-profit charity that manages the global disclosure system for investors, businesses, cities, states and regions to manage their environmental impacts and will help signatories partner with CDP.
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