A Multicriteria Methodology to Evaluate Climate Neutrality Claims—A Case Study with Spanish Firms
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Global Factor, Colón de Larreátegui, 26, Planta 1, 48009 Bilbao, Spain
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School of Sciences, Universidad de Navarra, 31080 Pamplona, Spain
*
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Academic Editor: Luisa F. Cabeza
Sustainability 2022, 14(7), 4310; https://doi.org/10.3390/su14074310
Received: 8 March 2022
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Revised: 29 March 2022
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Accepted: 30 March 2022
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Published: 5 April 2022
(This article belongs to the Section Air, Climate Change and Sustainability)
Net-zero pledges have become a paradigm of ambitious climate change action for companies, governments, and other organisations. However, there is no international standard or criteria to assess whether those commitments are feasible or truly represent a landmark in low carbon performance. In this paper, a methodology is proposed against which those statements can be quantified and assessed. The methodology was applied to Spanish companies that report to the Carbon Disclosure Project and showed that the biggest areas for improvement are the design of action plans, calculation, and offsetting. From a sectoral perspective, the energy sector, finance, and other services stood out as those with the highest scores. The food, beverages and tobacco, industry, and the entertainment industry obtained the lowest results. From a technical standpoint, strategy and commitment, calculation and scope, and communication are the areas where companies had the highest average scores. On the contrary, offsetting and action plans are the areas with the greatest room for improvement. Still, actual commitments are not enough to meet international climate neutrality objectives in the long-term and companies should continue to work in this direction. An enabling regulatory framework would be very useful to align private and public action in this area.
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Keywords:
climate neutrality; net-zero; climate change mitigation; voluntary carbon market; climate change; environmental integrity
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MDPI and ACS Style
Larrea, I.; Correa, J.M.; López, R.; Giménez, L.; Solaun, K. A Multicriteria Methodology to Evaluate Climate Neutrality Claims—A Case Study with Spanish Firms. Sustainability 2022, 14, 4310. https://doi.org/10.3390/su14074310
AMA Style
Larrea I, Correa JM, López R, Giménez L, Solaun K. A Multicriteria Methodology to Evaluate Climate Neutrality Claims—A Case Study with Spanish Firms. Sustainability. 2022; 14(7):4310. https://doi.org/10.3390/su14074310
Chicago/Turabian StyleLarrea, Iker, Jose M. Correa, Rafaella López, Lidia Giménez, and Kepa Solaun. 2022. "A Multicriteria Methodology to Evaluate Climate Neutrality Claims—A Case Study with Spanish Firms" Sustainability 14, no. 7: 4310. https://doi.org/10.3390/su14074310
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