‘Greenhushing’ and emissions reduction commitments

Not long ago, companies and investors liked to promote their commitments to reducing greenhouse gas emissions, responsible for global warming, to zero by 2050.

No more.

Now, the debate over zero emissions is a ‘political football’, with more than 10 Republican-majority legislative houses in the US punishing banks, investment management companies and corporations that talk about climate change and have targets to reduce their emissions.

However, companies and investors recognize the financial risks of climate change and, for the most part, are keeping these promises and taking initial steps to achieve them.

It’s just that they’re just not talking about it much.

‘Greenhushing’ gained strength in the election year

The polarized election year has exacerbated the trend of “greenhushing” (silence about sustainable practices).

It is on the same level as greenwashing (misleading disclosure of sustainable actions) when it comes to confusing the public about what the business sector is actually doing in relation to climate change.

Businesses have felt a financial impact from climate change with massive wildfires, droughts, heat waves and destructive hurricanes like Helene and Milton — each estimated to cost more than $50 billion in damages .

Climate-intensified extreme weather events have destroyed factories, crops, hotels, infrastructure and power plants.

The U.S. economy in recent years has been hit with an average of $150 billion in annual damage from climate change, according to the federal government’s Fifth National Climate Assessment, the latest in a series produced every few years since 1990. .

Globally, climate change is expected to cut 17% of the global economy, or gross domestic product, by 2050. For decades, scientific consensus has predicted that extreme weather would worsen as the atmosphere warms further due to the burning of fossil fuels and the logging.

Governments, companies and investors have slowly begun to worry about the economic impact of climate change.

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Companies’ commitment to reducing gas emissions remains firm

Countries that signed the Paris Agreement of the 2015 United Nations Convention on Climate Change have agreed to take steps to help limit the rise in global average temperatures to less than 2 degrees Celsius above the pre-industrial era.

But in 2018, scientists from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change issued a report predicting significant losses to industrial production, agriculture and infrastructure if temperatures rose by 2 degrees Celsius.

In Subsequent COPs, signatories to the Paris Agreement agreed to aim to limit warming to 1.5 degrees. Preventing the 1.5-degree tipping point has become a rallying cry for governments and companies.

Major companies including Apple, Best Buy, General Mills, Google, Ikea, JLL Real Estate, Microsoft, Morgan Stanley, Salesforce, Walmart, Unilever and others have committed to reducing their emissions to net zero by 2050, according to the sustainability nonprofit Ceres, and many aim to cut emissions in half by 2030.

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Large public pension funds in New York, California, Illinois and across Europe have committed to reducing the emissions represented in their portfolios to net zero, either gradually shifting their holdings or engaging with companies in their portfolios to reduce emissions.

Boston Consulting Group partner and principal Tim Mohin offered this prediction in a recent LinkedIn post:

“Companies committed to sustainability will stay the course because it makes business sense.

Investors will seek value by avoiding risks and investing in new and efficient green technologies.”

Bloomberg reported that “the prospect of less federal support for new climate technologies is already motivating some investors to step in to fill the void.”

About the author

Barbara Grady is a journalist focusing on sustainability and the climate crisis. She was a communications manager at Ceres, a sustainability nonprofit, and received awards for reporting on human trafficking and investigating earthquake preparedness in San Francisco.

This article was originally published by Yale Climate Connections and is republished by members of the Covering Climate Now climate coalition.

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