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The Big Con: How Big Polluters are Advancing a “Net Zero” Climate Agenda to Delay, Deceive, and Deny

The Big Con: How Big Polluters are Advancing a “Net Zero” Climate Agenda to Delay, Deceive, and Deny

Full Title: The Big Con: How Big Polluters are Advancing a “Net Zero” Climate Agenda to Delay, Deceive, and Deny
Author(s): Jesse Bragg, Rachel Rose Jackson, Souparna Lahiri
Publisher(s): Corporate Accountability, Global Forest Coalition, Friends of the Earth International
Publication Date: June 9, 2021
Full Text: Download Resource
Description (excerpt):

In the first section, this report summarizes existing analysis of the ways that “net zero” plans, rather than representing a credible approach to climate policy, are a vehicle for corporate greenwashing by Big Polluters. Then, in analyzing the “net zero” plans of an array of polluting corporations across sectors, the report documents in section 2 how these plans are dangerously masking further pollution and distracting from real action. And in section 3, through a series of illustrative examples, the report sheds light on why the focus on “net zero” by polluters is by design: It is the culmination of corporate capture of climate policy by Big Polluters, secured in part through vast corporate influence via lobbying, financial contributions, influence in academia, and public relations campaigns.

Finally, this report serves as an urgent call to action for all involved in global policymaking to change course now. “Net zero” schemes risk supplanting proven and meaningful action and instead locking in a polluting and destructive economy for decades to come. The planet and its people depend on world governments doing everything they can now to cut emissions to real—not net—zero. Anything else will have deadly consequences for billions of people’s lives and livelihoods

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