Making Net-Zero Pledges Count

Global Voices

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By Catherine McKenna, Former Canadian Environment & Climate Change Minister: If corporations – including even fossil-fuel companies – are now “climate leaders,” fully and loudly committed to the net-zero cause why are emissions still rising?

Climate action has come a long way since the Paris climate agreement was signed in 2015. Notably, net-zero has gone mainstream, with some 90% of global GDP now covered by net-zero targets. And it is not just governments that have adopted them; many of the world’s biggest companies have done so, too, motivated by a combination of business interest, investor expectations, and consumer pressure.