Guest essay by Eric Worrall

According to The Verge, being a member of the US Chamber of Commerce automatically means you are guilty of supporting climate inaction.

New report suggests corporate climate change pledges aren’t that valuable

Companies that say they want to stop climate change aren’t doing enough

By Justine Calma @justcalma  Jul 13, 2021, 3:15pm EDT

Many S&P 100 companies that claim to care about climate change are either ignoring or derailing policies that could provide solutions to the crisis, a new report finds. A whopping 92 percent of companies on the S&P 100 index in 2019 have pledged to cut down their own planet-heating emissions, but just 40 percent are actually pushing lawmakers to address the climate crisis, and 21 percent have advocated against science-based climate policy over the past five years. 

So while companies might sell themselves to consumers as planet-friendly, they’re not necessarily having the same conversations with decision-makers who are most responsible for tackling the crisis. Netflix, for example, plans to slash its greenhouse gases dramatically by the end of next year, but the streaming giant has yet to publicly advocate for any specific science-based climate policies, according to Ceres.

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Other companies are guilty of climate inaction by association, according to the report. About three-quarters of S&P 100 companies are members of the US Chamber of Commerce, which Ceres says “has long resisted the policies the nation needs to make its economy more sustainable.” Apple is the only company Ceres assessed that abandoned the chamber over its position on climate change.

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Read more: https://www.theverge.com/2021/7/13/22575651/corporate-climate-change-pledges-lobbying-report-s-p-100-index

I’m not sure why Apple qualifies as being an example of corporate virtue. Back in 2019 they were accused of rigging their supplier complaints process to make it inaccessible to exploited African children labouring in atrocious conditions, to provide the raw materials for building new Apple products.

But perhaps I am being unfair. No doubt Apple by now have advocates on the ground in Congo and other exploitation hotspots like Xinjiang in China, to ensure nothing Apple sells is tainted by forced labour, child labour or products derived from fossil fuel.

via Watts Up With That?

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July 14, 2021