Promises of carbon neutrality by multinational corporations, a vast smoke

technologies “green” For products “fixed”, The language used by large corporations to promote their environmental responsibilities is constantly changing. Comment Tea The New York Times, Recent interest in the field: Th “Carbon Neutral”, “New Civilization Ecological Formula” Promoted by many multinational corporations.

“At the recent World Economic Forum [qui a eu lieu à Davos du 22 au 26 mai]Large companies pride themselves on being able to achieve their net zero emissions targets”. The newspaper is listed among Swiss multinational Nestlé, Brazilian food giant JBS or American giant Amazon.

• Video (in English) The New York Times, who carried out the reconstruction “Corporate Climate Lies” :

Carbon neutrality, American Daily explains, is one of a kind “Better Point of Equilibrium”, A company or a country emits the same amount of carbon dioxide—one of the greenhouse gases responsible for global warming—from the atmosphere. “In theory, if all companies and all countries achieved this, global warming would stop.” Underlines New York Times: “Great!”

A march that pushes back deadlines

Indeed, the paper argues, “These Corporate Climate Responsibilities May Be Worse Than Empty Promises” Because they may waste the Earth’s precious time in the fight against global warming. First, most of these pledges are made to very distant frontiers “Back to a good blast”.

For example, the giant JPS specializes in meat production and packaging, “About 9 million animals are slaughtered every day”, This causes a large amount of greenhouse gas emissions and significant deforestation. The company announced last year that it would achieve carbon neutrality by 2040, but it has increased its CO2 emissions.₂ 50% in the last five years. And this The New York Times Summarize the strategy as follows:

“Apparently, JPS has given its operation another eighteen years to decarbonize. It’s like promising your doctor you’re going to quit smoking in eighteen years, and increasing your consumption in the meantime.

Defects and projects in Comet

Another important reservation, continues New York Times, Defects of this type of large companies about the harmful effects of their activities on the climate. ExxonMobil, an American oil and gas company, is responsible for many CO emissions₂ All of Germany commits to carbon neutrality by 2050. However, it ignores the emissions generated by the oil it sells, which completely distorts the calculation.

Finally, the last caveat is not least: the obligations of these institutions, insists New York Times, Mostly depends on technology “They are far from developed.”.

One of the ways considered “Looks relatively promising”, The paper agrees: Direct capture of carbon dioxide in the air – It is based on CO absorption₂ By “Big Fans” And store in a safe place. However, there are currently only nineteen devices in the world that only allow CO absorption in one year.₂ Made by about 700 Americans.

Similarly, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos promotes natural solutions that mainly involve planting trees. But do the math New York Times, To offset annual CO emissions₂ Inspired by the Amazon, it must plant “2.5 billion trees, the size of Costa Rica”. Every year.

In short, multinational corporations are far from offsetting their carbon footprint, contrary to what they claim.