Jean-Pascal Van Ypersele

On the topic of climate and carbon reduction commitments, corporations like Google, Microsoft, and Shell once positioned themselves as leaders in sustainability, setting ambitious net-zero goals to align with global environmental efforts. However, the rapid rise of energy-hungry artificial intelligence is forcing these companies to reconsider—or even abandon—these commitments as they struggle to balance environmental responsibility and making money from new tech.

In 2024, global average temperatures breached the critical threshold of 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels — a tipping point long warned about by scientists. Instead of catalyzing swift global action, this milestone has only underscored a grim reality: the collapse of our global ecological and economic systems is not a distant possibility — it is unfolding before us. Climate change, combined with the many other dimensions of the polycrisis — resource depletion, biodiversity loss, political instability, and economic inequities — has created a perfect storm. This storm is not just brewing; it’s here.

COP29 in Baku, which finished last week, was crawling with fossil-fuel lobbyists determined to eke out profits for as long as possible. Shockingly, for a second year running, it is European governments that have facilitated access for a huge number of them.

At least 1773 fossil fuel lobbyists have been granted access to the COP29 summit in Baku, underscoring an outsized polluter presence year after year at crucial climate talks, according to a new analysis from Corporate Europe Observatory, Corporate Accountability and Global Witness, from the Kick Big Polluters Out (KBPO) coalition.

How the EU is boosting the mining and defence industries in the name of climate action

“100% plantaardig!”, “CO2-neutraal geproduceerd”, “Gecertificeerd voor duurzaamheid”… Klinkt goed, toch? Maar let op: wat bedrijven op hun verpakkingen en in hun marketinguitingen claimen, is niet altijd wat het lijkt. Greenwashing, oftewel het misleidend presenteren van producten of diensten als duurzaam, is helaas een wijdverspreid probleem.

Our analysis of corporate carbon commitments suggests that what we have witnessed over the past few years is the birth of a first generation of commitments, where the emphasis has been more on signaling than on mapping out detailed plans on how to decarbonize. To be sure, there is still little detail on concrete steps and not much contingency planning.....

An NGO – or front-group - called Fight Impunity is at the heart of the biggest corruption scandal in the history of the European Parliament. And next Monday the 19th the European Council is about to softly kill the main legislative part of the Farm to Fork and Biodiversity strategy in the name of food security.

Nous ne pouvons pas sauver la planète d'un changement climatique désastreux sans nous attaquer aux marchés financiers. Tant que des milliers de milliards de dollars financeront en toute impunité combustibles fossiles et déforestation, nous ne pourrons ni freiner le changement climatique ni permettre aux communautés impactées de s'adapter.

Fossil fuel companies that want a free pass to keep pumping oil and gas are making wildly unrealistic promises about 'capturing' their emissions at sites of pollution, or removing them from the atmosphere at later date. But the science says drastic emission cuts are needed now if we are to stay within 1.5ºC warming. Thus ‘net zero’ policies are in reality 'not zero', and effectively guarantee that we’ll overshoot 1.5ºC, triggering catastrophic climate impacts which we have no reason to believe can be reversed by speculative and unproven ‘carbon removal’ technologies.