Message From the Editor

This week, investigative reporter Dana Drugmand dove into a new study that revealed that more than half of world’s largest companies’ net zero pledges are false promises. InfluenceMap, the organization conducting the study, is a London-based climate think tank.

The study analyzed nearly 300 of the top companies from the Forbes 2000 list and found that 58 percent did not match their climate policy influencing actions with their public claims of being committed to the Paris Climate Accord and achieving net zero emissions. The study also determined that a company is at risk of greenwashing if it has announced a net zero or similar target, but is not sufficiently supportive of policies needed to achieve the Paris Agreement objectives.

“Unless companies match their climate commitments with ambitious support for government-led policy action, the Paris Agreement goals will be impossible to reach,” says Will Aitchison, lead author of the study and a director of communications at InfluenceMap.

In a piece by Michaela Herrmann, we unpack the shocking project that exposed China’s use of forced Uyghur labor to supply the UK seafood industry.

The Outlaw Ocean Project documented the forcible transfer of more than a thousand Uyghurs and members of other Muslim minorities 2,000 miles from their homes in landlocked Xinjiang to 10 fish processing plants in the coastal province of Shandong since 2018.

And British supermarkets are sourcing seafood from these companies exploiting forced labor by minority Uyghurs.

Have a story tip or feedback? Get in touch: [email protected]. Want to know what our UK team is up to? Sign up for our UK newsletter.

Thanks,
Brendan DeMelle
Executive Director

P.S. Investigative journalism like this is made possible by readers like you. Can you donate $10 or $20 right now to support more of this essential work?

Image credit: Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0) 

On Tuesday, November 28, generous donors across the world will come together to give back. We’re hoping that you’ll include DeSmog in your Giving Tuesday plans!

At this very moment, a small but mighty team of DeSmog journalists is packing their bags to head to the United Arab Emirates for the annual UN climate negotiations, COP28. They’ll be reporting from COP28 on how polluting industries — from Big Oil to Big Ag — wield PR, greenwashing, and false solutions to delay essential climate action.

Our COP28 coverage aims to expose disinformation tactics and the roots of influence and power, and we need your help to do this crucial work. This Giving Tuesday, please consider supporting our team on the ground with a donation of any amount.

Save the date for November 28th!

More than Half of World’s Largest Companies’ Net Zero Pledges Are False Promises, Study Finds

— By Dana Drugmand (3 min. read) —

Companies’ climate commitments are largely misaligned with their lobbying activities, with more than half of the world’s largest corporations at risk of “net zero greenwashing,” according to a new report.

An analysis of nearly 300 of the top companies from the Forbes 2000 list found that 58 percent  did not match their climate policy influencing actions with their public claims of being committed to the Paris Climate Accord and achieving net zero emissions.

The Outlaw Ocean Project Exposes China’s Use Of Forced Uyghur Labour To Supply UK Seafood Industry

— By Michaela Herrmann (9 min. read) —

Britain is facing calls to impose import controls on China after an investigation revealed that supermarkets are sourcing seafood from companies exploiting forced labour by minority Uyghurs.

The Outlaw Ocean Project documented the forcible transfer of more than a thousand Uyghurs and members of other Muslim minorities 2,000 miles from their homes in landlocked Xinjiang to 10 fish processing plants in the coastal province of Shandong since 2018.

Why the Belief That Carbon Capture Technologies Can Work at Gigaton-Scale Is a Gigantic Gamble

— Dana Drugmand (9 min. read) —

With the start of the 28th annual United Nations climate summit, COP28, just two weeks away, a battle is brewing over the role of fossil fuels as nations try to stem the tide of climate change. 

A “high ambition” coalition of nations such as France, Tuvalu, Ethiopia, and Ireland backed by climate scientists, climate and civil society organizations, and the UN Secretary General, are calling for commitments to phase out coal, oil, and gas. On the other hand, many oil and gas producing countries, supported by the politically potent fossil fuel lobby, are urging an approach that allows continued fossil fuel extraction – and even expansion – under the assumption that emissions mitigation technologies can largely eliminate the climate pollution of business-as-usual, emissions-intensive activities.

UAE Oil Fields Constantly Flaring Despite 20-Year-Old Commitment To Stop, Analysis Shows

— By Joe Sandler Clark (5 min. read) —

State-owned oil and gas fields across the United Arab Emirates have flared almost constantly despite a long-standing policy to eliminate “routine” flaring in their operations, DeSmog can reveal.

New data, produced exclusively for The Guardian and DeSmog, found that a single gas field in the United Arab Emirates run by state oil firm Adnoc flared more gas than all oil and gas fields in Norway last year.

From the Climate Disinformation Database: The National Association of Manufacturers

The National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) describes itself as the largest manufacturing association in the United States and claims to represent “small and large manufacturers in every industrial sector and in all 50 states” by working “on the front lines of a wide range of policy battles, from immigration reform and labor relations, to energy and the environment, to trade policy and taxes.” The NAM has routinely opposed the Clean Air Act, regulation of greenhouse gas emissions under the Clean Power Plan, stricter ozone standards, and a wide range of other environmental regulations that it argues would negatively impact industry. The New York Times reported that both NAM and the American Petroleum Institute continued to “lobby against any law or treaty that would sharply curb emissions” after leaving the Global Climate Coalition.

Read the full profile and browse other individuals and organizations in our Climate Disinformation Database and Koch Network Database.