For one, their pledges are based on technology that's nowhere near ready for use.
By Agnes Walton Senior Video Reporter |
Over the past year, corporations responsible for huge quantities of carbon emissions have pledged to help stop climate change by achieving what they call net zero — spewing no more carbon into the atmosphere than they can remove. At climate summits, energized C.E.O.s have proclaimed that zero-emission solutions, including how to produce clean cement and steel, might be just around the corner. |
Previous waves of corporate environmental fervor have failed to deliver a cooler or cleaner planet. It doesn't take a cynic to ask whether this new rush to net zero will bring us any closer to salvation. |
In Times Opinion's latest video, we've dissected pledges from three companies that produce quantities of emissions so large, they could single-handedly influence the future of the planet. Their targets are set years, even decades, into the future and are contingent on technology that's not available at the scale required. Today, "net-zero emissions" seems more like clever marketing of science fiction scenarios than a reachable goal. |
Still, it's hard to ignore the buzz around these pledges, which are increasingly becoming the benchmark of corporate environmental responsibility. Climate policy heavyweights have thrown their support behind these companies and their initiatives. Christiana Figueres, the negotiator credited with pushing through the Paris Agreement, partnered with Jeff Bezos to develop Amazon's climate pledge. John Kerry, the United States' climate envoy, led a panel of executives at the World Economic Forum, praising their collective contributions in the race to net zero. |
To stop rising temperatures, we'll need massive reductions in emissions and, crucially, a tested method to remove carbon from the atmosphere on a vast scale. It remains to be seen whether technology will develop so rapidly that what's unthinkable today is possible in 20 or 30 years, when these pledges will supposedly be fulfilled. While we wait, the world gets hotter every day. |
Here's what we're focusing on today: |
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