First, there was green. “Green technology.” Then, there was
sustainability. “Sustainability.” This year, there’s a hot
new environmental buzzword. “Net zero.” “Net zero.” “Net zero.” Net zero is climate-
meeting insider speak for sort of ideal
state of equilibrium, when a company or
country removes the same amount of carbon from
the atmosphere as it emits. Theoretically, if every
company and nation achieved that, global
warming would stop. Imagine that. At the recent World
Economic Forum, an impressive list
of major companies touted their net zero pledges. After decades of inaction,
climbing carbon emissions and rising temperatures,
it appears like something finally might be shifting. “We’re witnessing really
the emergence of a new environmental capitalism.” If governments won’t fix this,
corporations certainly can, right? Probably not. These corporate
climate pledges might be worse than
just empty promises. They could obstruct efforts
to stop climate change before it’s too late. We’re going to show the three
major flaws that make net zero an illusion. The first and biggest
flaw, many net zero goals are set way into the future. “By 2030.” “2040.” “2045.” Essentially kicking
the can down the road. Meatpacking giant JBS
slaughters almost nine million animals every day. That’s a whole lot of
methane, diesel fuel and deforestation. JBS announced last year
it’s going net zero by 2040. “JBS — bringing
more to the table.” But in the last five years,
it increased emissions by 50 percent. 2040 is 18 years away. So it looks a
lot like JBS just gave itself 18 more years
to pump out the CO₂. It’s like promising a doctor
you’ll quit smoking in 18 years, but until
then, you ramp up. Now, here’s the
second problem. This new generation
of corporate pledges come with big caveats. [MUSIC PLAYING] Exxon recently committed
to net zero by 2050. It’s responsible for 762
million tons of greenhouse gas emissions every year,
about the same as Germany. This sounds huge. It sounds almost
too good to be true. It is. When an oil company says
it’s going net zero, don’t be fooled into thinking
the company plans to address emissions from the
oil it actually sells. Exxon’s net zero pledge
doesn’t cover 85 percent of its carbon footprint. That omission is common. Take 10 of the biggest
publicly traded companies. Only two net zero pledges
address the full damage done by their businesses. That’s why you always
read the fine print. [MUSIC PLAYING] These pledges often rely on
technology that’s nowhere near ready yet. Remember, companies are
promising they’ll figure out how to remove carbon from
the atmosphere in the future. To be fair, one idea does
look sort of promising. It’s called direct
air capture. Essentially, giant fans suck
CO₂ out of the atmosphere and store it somewhere safe. But there are just 19
direct air capture plants in the entire world,
which in a year can remove the annual
emissions of only about 700 Americans. It’ll be decades before
that technology can be used at scale, if ever. Here’s another potential
carbon-sucking fix from Jeff Bezos. “Nature-based solutions. That’s the key.” Nature-based solutions. That’s usually another way
of saying planting trees. “Even small things,
like planting trees, can help the planet.” Actually, planting trees to
offset Amazon’s emissions wouldn’t be a small thing. To remove the company’s
current emissions from the air, they’d have to
plant 2.5 billion trees, an area the size of
Costa Rica, every year. Ted Talks, endless
panels and ovations — these glitzy events
mask a terrifying truth. These corporations don’t
yet know how to fulfill their science-fiction
net zero pledges, and they’ve given themselves
decades to figure it out. But outside the boardroom,
one thing’s certain — the planet’s in a
full-blown meltdown. And it’s definitely
not waiting for 2040. [MUSIC PLAYING]
