The Most Important Climate Pledges Aren’t the Splashy Ones
It’s the small, technical maneuvers that will force the most immediate changes.
Photographer: Luke Sharrett/Bloomberg
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It’s Climate Week in New York, which brings with it a raft of announcements from companies outlining their new decarbonization targets and clean investment strategies. Some of the declarations are hefty, like Walmart Inc.’s plan to reach zero emissions across its global operations in 20 years without relying on carbon offsets. Others, like Morgan Stanley’s commitment to reach “new net-zero financed emissions by 2050,” are long-dated and light on the details. Then there’s General Electric Co’s pledge to stop supplying equipment to new coal-fired power plants, 138 years after its founder, Thomas Edison, built the first coal power generating station in Lower Manhattan. (GE won’t be entirely out of the industry it created. It’ll still supply and service the existing coal plant fleet, but it won’t service its growth.)