How It Ends: 96% of Big Corporations Quietly Abandon Their Climate Commitments

By Jo Nova – Sunday

And Then the Climate Pledges Evaporated

The tech giants are backing away. Microsoft and Google have quietly given up on their carbon neutrality goals, no longer boasting about their environmental efforts. This comes after their emissions have increased by 29% and 50%, respectively, over the past four or five years. More than 500 companies had pledged to achieve net zero emissions by 2040, but 96% of them are failing to stay on track.

To distract us from discussing how the climate bubble has burst, some companies are now blaming artificial intelligence (AI). The claims the world is facing mass death and boiling oceans, and despite wind and solar power still not being as cheap as claimed, Big Tech is retreating from their role in “saving the world.” Why? Because AI uses a lot of electricity? It’s as if these CEOs, once hailed as saviours of the planet, are now more focused on capturing the AI market than preserving the environment. The so-called planetary heroes have reverted to being robber barons in business.

Dr. Jemma Green, who sells software for renewable energy markets, is trying to spin a tale of bad luck, but it doesn’t add up. The truth is, if net zero technologies were truly cheap and effective, and if CEOs genuinely cared about the planet, they wouldn’t be abandoning their commitments. But they are.

Why Are Big Corporations Quietly Abandoning Their Climate Commitments?

Jemma Green, in a Forbes article, discusses AI’s energy demands and corporate climate hypocrisy. Companies like Google, Microsoft, and Shell once positioned themselves as leaders in sustainability, setting ambitious net-zero goals to align with global environmental efforts. However, the rapid rise of energy-hungry AI is forcing these companies to reconsider—or even abandon—these commitments.

Corporate climate pledges surged recently, with over 500 companies globally committing to net-zero emissions by 2040. This momentum continued between June 2022 and October 2023, with a 40% increase in new net-zero targets. Yet, as the AI revolution gains traction, cracks in these promises are beginning to show. Recent analysis reveals that only 4% of these companies are on track to meet their goals, highlighting a disconnect between corporate rhetoric and reality.

Despite the headline, Green isn’t even trying to explain why this shift is happening. After blaming AI for a few paragraphs, she notes that other giants like Shell, Gucci, and EasyJet are also stepping away from their goals, which pokes a hole in her thesis that AI is the sole culprit. After all, Gucci isn’t exactly trying to sell AI programs.

What Green is documenting is the corporate world quietly erasing their mistakes. For instance, Shell has abandoned its 2035 target of a 45% reduction in net carbon intensity, citing “uncertainty in the pace of change in the energy transition.” This target was a key milestone towards Shell’s broader goal of net-zero emissions by 2050. Similarly, luxury fashion house Gucci, which once committed to carbon neutrality through verified carbon offsets, quietly removed its claim of being “entirely carbon neutral” from its website in May 2023.

The truth is, if the Earth were in real danger, smart CEOs and billionaires—who have to live on the planet too—would be pushing for nuclear power as if their children’s lives depended on it. Instead, it seems it was all just an intellectual fashion contest, a quick subsidy grab, and maybe some even believed wind and solar power would be useful. But they don’t anymore.