The breaking point of Big Business

This year’s episode of the emission reduction drama known as COP ended in what was effectively a disaster, since the parties from the above acronym failed to pledge a phase-out of fossil fuels. Almost lost in the sound of alarm bells being run by pretty much every political delegate at the conference, however, was a certain disgruntlement among businesses.

The FT’s Pilita Clark summed up this disgruntlement in the lead of a recent story: “Has business had it with net zero?” she wrote at the beginning of the article before moving on to cite a number of business executives venting their frustration with the endless wave of more regulatory requirements focused on emissions and their growing exasperation with this constantly growing regulatory load.

Everyone seems to be unhappy with the status quo in emissions reporting and reduction.

Politicians are unhappy because while a lot of companies have made net-zero pledges, there is little actual work being done to advance those pledges. A lot of these pledges are nothing but “empty slogans and hype”, per one outraged expert from a UN panel.

Business people are unhappy because they are being drowned in paperwork and rules, up to and including increasingly loud calls to reduce the emissions that the users of their products generate — the so-called Scope 3 emissions. There is also an idea to make emission reduction progress reporting mandatory. And it’s only going to get worse.