By Ira Srivastava
1. Tech giants are underestimating their emissions impacts. According to The Guardian, data centre emissions from companies such as Google, Microsoft, Meta, Amazon and Apple are at least “about 662%… higher than officially reported”. Each of these companies have set ambitious climate goals, but unless they are realistic and transparent about their true emissions impacts and abandon “creative accounting”, meaningful change will not occur. Creative accounting is done via Recs, or renewable energy certificates. Companies buy these to certify that a certain proportion of their energy consumption comes from renewable sources, but the renewable energy purchased “doesn’t need to be consumed by a company’s facilities”. Renewable energy is purchased, but there is no requirement or accounting to ensure that the renewable energy is used in that specific facility.
2. SEC disbands the climate and ESG task force. In March of 2021, the United States Securities and Exchange Commission announced the ESG task force to focus on ESG misconduct and whistleblower claims. Last week, the organisation announced that it would be closing the task forces operations. However, this does not mean that the SEC is deprioritising ESG related misconduct. A spokesperson shared that “the expertise developed by the task-force now resides across the division”. They also stated that if ESG issues such as greenwashing became more prevalent again the tools are now in place across the organisation to address them.
3. Companies are bringing climate targets forward. A study by Climate Impact Partners of Fortune Global 500 organisations found that these companies are speeding up their net-zero commitments. In 2020, 8% of the Fortune Global 500 had net-zero commitments, while this year that number has jumped to 45%. However, due to a growing risk of political backlash as well as the avoidance of greenwashing, many companies are choosing not to publicize these commitments as broadly. The report also finds that almost half of companies are planning to use carbon credits to meet these targets, but the use of carbon credits has faced criticism. This criticism has led the Science Based Targets initiative to stop allowing “companies to use carbon credits to offset value chain emissions”. While setting targets is an important first step, companies need to develop strategies to successfully achieve these targets, and that is where most of the work must be done.
4. India plans to install record renewables capacity this year. India is the fastest growing economy in the world. To support this growth and meet growing energy demand, the country has relied heavily on coal. Coal output will grow by about 8.9% in the next year, while renewables are set to increase by 8.2%. India set a target to reach 500 gigawatts of clean energy by the end of this decade. In order to reach this target, Adani, Reliance, and other financial institutions will fund US$386 billion of clean energy capacity. This funding will bring over 130 gigawatts of capacity online, with 35 gigawatts coming online by March 2025.
5. The European Union’s significant emissions achievements. The State of the Energy Union Report 2024 prepared for the European Parliament highlights the EU’s progress in renewable energy. Here are some takeaways:
- Half of the EU’s electricity generated in H1 of 2024 was from renewable sources
- EU imports of Russian natural gas dropped from 45% in 2021 to 18% by the middle of 2024, with Norwegian natural gas making up for the difference
- Greenhouse gas emissions from the EU have dropped by 32.5% from 1990 to 2022 while the economy has seen 67% growth in the same time period
- More work is needed to achieve the Union’s goal of 55% emissions reductions by the end of the decade
Ira Srivastava is Competent Boards’ Program Coordinator. Follow Competent Boards on LinkedIn.