{"id":410,"date":"2021-06-19T14:45:14","date_gmt":"2021-06-19T14:45:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ecosocialist.scot\/?p=410"},"modified":"2021-08-01T09:02:42","modified_gmt":"2021-08-01T09:02:42","slug":"the-big-con-net-zero-emissions-is-a-dangerous-hoax","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ecosocialist.scot\/?p=410","title":{"rendered":"The Big Con: \u2018Net zero\u2019 emissions is a dangerous hoax"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The Scottish and UK governments are heavily promoting ‘Net Zero’ as the way to combat climate change in the run-up to the COP26 Climate Change Conference in Glasgow in November 2021<\/a>.\u00a0 Below ecosocialist.scot<\/a> republishes an article about the dangers of ‘net zero’, highlighted in a recent report by three global organisations.\u00a0 This version of the article was originally published on the ‘Climate & Capitalism’ ecosocialist blog published by Ian Angus in the Canadian state.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/header>\n

\u2018Net zero\u2019 emissions is a dangerous hoax<\/h1>\n
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June 10, 2021<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/header>\n
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Corporate \u2018climate pledges\u2019 mask inaction and support business as usual.<\/p>\n

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by Brett Wilkins<\/strong><\/p>\n

A new report published\u00a0Wednesday by a trio of progressive advocacy groups lifts the veil on so-called \u201cnet zero\u201d climate pledges, which are often touted by corporations and governments as solutions to the climate emergency, but which the paper\u2019s authors argue are merely a dangerous form of greenwashing that should be eschewed in favor of Real Zero policies based on meaningful, near-term commitments to reducing global greenhouse gas emissions.<\/p>\n

The Big Con: How Big Polluters Are Advancing a \u2018Net Zero\u2019 Climate Agenda to Delay, Deceive, and Deny<\/a><\/strong><\/em>\u00a0was published by Corporate Accountability, the Global Forest Coalition, and Friends of the Earth International, and is endorsed by over 60 environmental organizations. The paper comes ahead of this November\u2019s United Nations Climate Change Conference in Glasgow, Scotland and amid proliferating pledges from polluting corporations and governments to achieve what they claim is carbon neutrality\u2014increasingly via dubious offsets\u2014by some distant date, often the year 2050.<\/p>\n

However, the report asserts that<\/p>\n

\u201cInstead of offering meaningful real solutions to justly address the crisis they knowingly created and owning up to their responsibility to act beginning with drastically reducing emissions at source, polluting corporations and governments are advancing \u2018net zero\u2019 plans that require little or nothing in the way of real solutions or real effective emissions cuts. \u2026. They see the potential for a \u2018net zero\u2019 global pathway to provide new business opportunities for them, rather than curtailing production and consumption of their polluting products.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cAfter decades of inaction, corporations are suddenly racing to pledge to achieve \u201cnet zero\u201d emissions. These include fossil fuel giants like BP, Shell, and Total; tech giants like Microsoft and Apple; retailers like Amazon and Walmart; financers like HSBC, Bank of America, and BlackRock; airlines like United and Delta; and food, livestock, and meat-producing and agriculture corporations like JBS, Nestl\u00e9, and Cargill. Polluting corporations are in a race to be the loudest and proudest to pledge \u2018net zero\u2019 emissions by 2050 or some other date in the distant future. Over recent years, more than 1,500 corporations have made \u2018net zero\u2019 commitments, an accomplishment applauded by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and the U.N. Secretary-General.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cIncreasingly, the concept of \u2018net zero\u2019 is being misconstrued in political spaces as well as by individual actors to evade action and avoid responsibility,\u201d the report states. \u201cThe idea behind big polluters\u2019 use of \u2018net zero\u2019 is that an entity can continue to pollute as usual\u2014or even increase its emissions\u2014and seek to compensate for those emissions in a number of ways. Emissions are nothing more than a math equation in these plans; they can be added one place and subtracted from another place.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cThis equation is simple in theory but deeply flawed in reality,\u201d the paper asserts. \u201cThese schemes are being used to mask inaction, foist the burden of emissions cuts and pollution avoidance on historically exploited communities, and bet our collective future through ensuring long-term, destructive impact on land and forests, oceans, and through advancing geoengineering technologies. These technologies are hugely risky, do not exist at the scale supposedly needed, and are likely to cause enormous, and likely irreversible, damage.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Among the key findings of the report:<\/p>\n