45 percent of corporations are climate hypocrites, new NGO InfluenceMap finds
New research reveals that 45 percent of the 100 largest global industrial companies are obstructing climate change legislation, while 95 percent of these companies are members of trade associations demonstrating the same obstructionist behaviour. This is the key finding of newly formed London based non-profit InfluenceMap, using a unique research methodology developed with Washington based Union of Concerned Scientists. Gretchen Goldman, from the Union of Concerned Scientists said: “More and more, we’re seeing companies rely on their trade groups to do their dirty work of lobbying against comprehensive climate policies… It is unacceptable that companies can obstruct climate action in this way without any accountability.” Google, Unilever and Cisco are ranked as leaders in InfluenceMap’s scoring system, each receiving a ‘B’ for supporting multiple strands of climate policy globally. This contrasts with companies lower down including BP, Rio Tinto and Procter & Gamble, all of whom recently came under attack for their links to BusinessEurope and other lobbying groups. (Blue and Green Tomorrow)
Strategy
P&G announces new science-based carbon goal
Procter & Gamble (P&G) announced today a new goal to reduce absolute greenhouse gas emissions from its facilities by 30 percent by 2020. Developed in partnership with World Wildlife Fund (WWF), the new goal is designed to ensure that P&G is supporting global efforts to prevent global temperatures from exceeding two degrees Celsius, using science-based methodologies. In addition, the Company is joining the Climate Savers Program, a programme sponsored by WWF to enable leading companies to collaborate and accelerate their efforts to address climate change. “Climate change is a global issue and we believe everyone – companies, governments, and individuals – all have a role to play,” said Len Sauers, vice president, global sustainability for P&G. “We felt it was important to come forward with an ambitious, science-based goal to help do our part to address the challenges that climate change poses.” P&G plans to achieve its new goal by maintaining a focus on energy conservation and increasing its use of renewable energy. (Eco-Business)
Cargill marks anniversary of no-deforestation pledge with new forest policy
On Wednesday, just a few days from the first anniversary of the New York Declaration on Forests (NYDF), an international, multi-sector commitment to safeguard the world’s forests and to help tackle climate change, Cargill released a new Policy on Forests. By signing the NYDF last year, Cargill pledged to do its part to halve deforestation by 2020 and end it completely by 2030. The new policy and action plans go a step further by outlining specific measures that will help the company reach its goal. However, Greenpeace indicated that the new policy still falls short in several areas. Matt Daggett, Global Forests Campaign Leader at Greenpeace, said “If Cargill is serious about ending its role in deforestation, the company should do two things. First, it must ensure that Brazil’s soy moratorium is renewed, and then, over time, extended to cover more South American rainforests… Second, Cargill must work with other traders to introduce a similar initiative to protect Indonesia’s forests from palm oil and other commodities.” (Sustainable Brands)
Corporate Reputation
Indonesia arrests seven company executives for illegal forest fires
Indonesian police have nabbed seven corporate executives in connection with illegal forest fires across Sumatra and Kalimantan, as part of a wide-ranging effort to arrest the haze crisis. Suspects from the latest bust included a senior executive from Bumi Mekar Hijau, a unit of Singapore-based Asia Pulp and Paper (APP), which is also Indonesia’s largest pulp and paper producer. The national impetus, revealed on Wednesday, includes deploying more police to help with firefighting and handling probes against culprits, and increasing cloud-seeding sorties to douse the blazes, especially those burning on dry peatlands. These carbon-rich peatlands produce the thick haze that has blanketed many parts of Indonesia, as well as neighbours Malaysia and Singapore in recent weeks, bringing the air quality down to unhealthy and sometimes hazardous levels. (Straits Times)
Policy
Reinsurers call for action at climate change summit
Politicians must act to cap global warming when they meet at a United Nations summit at the end of the year as the financial and humanitarian consequences of natural catastrophes become ever clearer, reinsurers meeting at an industry conference said. The $600 billion reinsurance industry helps insurance companies pay damage claims from hurricanes, floods or earthquakes and can help people and companies get back on their feet after a disaster. The UN’s climate boss warned this week that national promises to cut emissions so far would cap warming at an unacceptably high level, heightening concerns in the insurance industry about politicians’ lack of resolve. Swiss Re’s Chief Executive, Michel Lies, told a news conference, “What we can bring to the table is a credible price tag for the decisions that are taken or not taken, making sure everybody understands that in the short term you may not take a decision but you will definitely pay a price in the long term,” Lies said. (Reuters)
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