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Climate change has been a growing concern for some time, and consumers have been putting pressure on companies to lower their climate footprint and reduce carbon emissions. While some companies have made radical shifts to make a difference to fight Climate change, others have done little more than greenwash their businesses through better advertising and meaningless campaigns.

In an attempt to see just how serious some of the world’s leading companies are about their climate-change promises, the New Climate Institute released a study of 25 corporations in collaboration with the Carbon Market Watch.

According to BBC, the researchers hoped to unveil the “good practices” they saw in the study, but were “frankly surprised and disappointed at the overall integrity of the companies’ claims.” According to their assessments, the vast majority of companies examined had “low” to “very low” integrity when it came to their messaging and practices surrounding Climate change.

The study looked at each company’s climate promises and assessed them for factors like annually disclosing emissions, giving a breakdown of emission sources, and disclosing information in an understandable way. While they found that some of the methods being used to lower emissions could reduce climate impact by 40%, that number is nowhere near the 100% emission reduction that the companies promise.

According to a press release, companies ranked with “low integrity” include Amazon, Google, IKEA, Walmart, and Volkswagen. Companies ranked with “very low integrity” include CVS Health, BMW Group, Nestle, and Unilever.

In the press release, Gilles Dufrasne, from Carbon Market Watch, stated: “Misleading advertisements by companies have real impacts on consumers and policymakers. We’re fooled into believing that these companies are taking sufficient action, when the reality is far from it. Without more regulation, this will continue. We need governments and regulatory bodies to step up and put an end to this greenwashing trend.”

Read more about how people around the world, like in Pakistan, The U.S., Madrid, Minneapolis, and others, are working to combat climate change and make a difference for the planet. To help combat Climate change, one of the most important things you can do is switch to a plant-based diet and say no to animal agriculture. 

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