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The ruling referred to ads displayed in bus stops in London and Bristol in October 2021, in the run-up to the COP26 climate conference, promoting HSBC’s initiatives to provide up to $1 trillion in finance and investment to help clients transition to net zero, and to help plant 2 million trees.
The landmark ParisAgreement was forged in the corridors of COP21 back in 2015. Turning COP into a venue for greenwashing Oil and gas did not show up to the COP party uninvited. According to a report by the London-based NGO Global Witness, 503 fossil fuel lobbyists attended the COP26 meeting in Glasgow in 2021.
Alongside the progress of a bill in California calling for fossil fuel divestment by public-sector pensions, and the SEC’s plans for climate-risk disclosures , this new assault on greenwashing moves US policy closer to its European counterparts, where fund disclosure rules are already reshaping the market.
The postponed COP26 summit held in Glasgow in November was widely billed as a moment of reckoning; the world’s last chance to set out serious plans to deliver the global commitment to keep temperature rises to 1.5°C. Yet COP26 came and went without the detailed action plans required. Concerns over corporate greenwash are widespread.
It also said that FIs should transition and align all financing activities with net zero pathways that achieve ParisAgreement goals, with “no or low overshoot”, as well as align them with the UN Sustainable Development Goals. Addressing greenwashing. C above pre-industrial levels.
Regulators around the world are considering increasing their scrutiny of companies’ emissions-reduction claims in a bid to dispel greenwashing concerns. .
Given the mixed track record of the finance sector in aligning with the goals of the ParisAgreement, its response to the increased pressure is seen as key test of major institutions’ ability to transition long-established business models. . Phasing down and out .
Following the UK government’s COP26 declaration that all new cars and vans must be 100% zero emission by 2035, there has been a paradigm shift, with an ever-increasing demand for electric vehicles. Solar power as “the cheapest form of electricity in history” at COP26. Increasing demand for installing EV charging points.
Sceptics remain unconvinced , their reservations over financial institutions’ commitments reinforced by news of further regulatory crackdowns on greenwashing, this time at Goldman Sachs , accused of overstating the credentials of its green funds.
This builds onto the UK’s existing national commitments, such as the Glasgow Climate Pact from COP26, promising the 2020s to be a decade of action. Unfortunately, with less than eight years left to halve emissions and current national commitments consistent with a 2.4 o C remains highly uncertain. What does a credible strategy look like?
To support companies in their investments in nature, We Mean Business Coalition launched a new partnership with the Voluntary Carbon Markets Integrity initiative (VCMI) , supporting companies to follow VCMI’s Claims Code and helping to ensure carbon market investments strengthen global action towards achieving the goals of the ParisAgreement.
Finally, we had the Conference of the parties COP26, where countries and businesses increased their climate ambition. Two events will increase corporate Net-zero programs credibility and separate climate action from pure greenwashing: The launch of the first science-based Net-Zero standard by SBTi. Carbon Offsets Market growth.
The UN High-Level Expert Group on the Net Zero Emissions Commitments of Non-State Entities issued its recommendations for eliminating ‘greenwashing’ from net zero pledges, which emphasised the need for “significant near- and medium- emission reductions” in 2050 decarbonisation plans. .
The expert panel’s assessment will include how low-carbon-transition efforts by corporations and sub-national governments align with national commitments made under the ParisAgreement, which aims to limit average increase in temperatures to 1.5°C. Net-zero commitments proliferated ahead of COP26, held last November in Glasgow.
While progress was uneven, it was achieved against a radically changing geopolitical backdrop, and reinforced by moves in the US to mandate climate risk disclosures by corporates and discourage greenwashing by fund providers. COP26 revisited. It might not be perfect, but perhaps we should not expect it to be.
Since the 2015 ParisAgreement, thousands of companies have voluntarily set ambitious, science-based emissions reduction targets. Since COP26, some of those jurisdictions (the SEC, EFRAG and International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) Foundation) have delivered pioneering legislative and standard-setting efforts.
After the signature of the ParisAgreement in 2015, science has become widely accepted. Businesses must close the ‘Say : Do’ gap; the greenwashing space between their environmental pledges and (lack of) actions to meet them Paul Polman, former Unilever CEO. Why should a company be net-zero? 4 – Report progress.
Furthermore, expansion to new sectors, faster cuts of the supply of allowances and other climate policies like EU’s fit-for-55 or COP26 adoption of Article 6 are pushing prices up. Besides, a third of the respondents consider offsetting as pure greenwashing. Offsetting is often hypocrisy, and it is swirling around at #COP26.
However, shortfalls in clean energy investments persist, the IEA said, noting that “if China is excluded, then the amount being invested in clean energy each year in [EMDEs] has remained flat since the ParisAgreement was concluded in 2015”. C is to remain achievable. .
This March, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told a sustainable business forum in Vancouver “things have changed” since the country signed up to the ParisAgreement on climate change. C, clarifying fiduciary duty, and strengthening advertising rules to deter greenwashing.
The UK has delivered its account of the progress made under its COP26 presidency, but with only 26 countries having made good on the Glasgow commitment to resubmit nationally determined contributions before arriving in Sharm El Sheikh, evidence is inconclusive.
Getting to net-zero – without greenwashing. The last climate conference, COP26 in Glasgow, Scotland, nearly fell apart over frustration that international finance wasn’t flowing to developing countries and that corporations and financial institutions were greenwashing – making claims they couldn’t back up.
Also as at COP26, some developing countries are reluctant to commit too quickly to fossil fuel phase out , critical to efforts to ‘ keep 1.5°C C alive ’, especially when developed countries are still failing to deliver on climate finance pledges to support this energy transition , described in the new text as a “grave concern”.
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