Commentary: Companies pledging net-zero targets need to show substance

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The pressure on companies to get serious about sustainability and climate change makes good business sense but the proof is in the pudding, ...

LONDON: What will you be doing in 2050? As individuals, most of us struggle to picture what our lives will be like almost 30 years from now.AdvertisementTo believe their press releases, the midpoint of this century will be the moment when they will no longer emit a single puff of greenhouse gas into the atmosphere without doing something that removes a similar amount.

But much like Saint Augustine asking to be made chaste , such far-off goals raise the suspicion that some executives would like more time before they — or, preferably, their successors — must embrace environmental virtue. Such concerns are understandable. A PwC survey released earlier this month showed that climate change ranked only ninth among global CEOs’ perceived threats to growth. More than a quarter of the executives polled claimed to be unconcerned by a warming planet.

Critics have spent decades complaining that companies cannot see beyond the next quarter, so even environmentalists agree that their apparent willingness to tackle such long-term challenges is welcome, especially given that it has emerged despite the short-term pressures of the pandemic.It is also increasingly good business.

“Net-zero pathways” have slipped easily into the corporate jargon. But investors need to see meaningful milestones along those paths to 2050, starting with a clear plan for aligning with the UN goal of halving emissions from their 2010 level by the end of this decade.

 

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