Major Firms Going Half-speed on CO2 Reduction

August 25, 2009

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The world’s largest companies’ carbon-cutting targets are too modest to avoid dangerous climate change, according to a report from the Carbon Disclosure Project.

The Global 100, or the 100 largest firms in the world, have combined goals that will reduce emissions 1.9 percent a year. That is less than half the 3.9 percent that is estimated to be required to cut emissions in developed nations by 80 percent by 2050, a benchmark that the Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change (IPCC) said is necessary in order to avoid cataclysmic climate change.

The report, “The Carbon Chasm,” is based on data from 2008.

Most problematic is that most companies, 84 percent, have set carbon reduction goals up to and including 2012, but many have not set goals as far out as 2050.

At the current rate of reduction, Carbon Disclosure Project estimates that the 80 percent reduction goal won’t be met until 2089, or 39 years too late to prevent dangerous climate change.

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