In Iain Banks’ novel Complicity, a character discusses his “un-ethical investment” strategy. With so many right-on, bourgeois, Guardian readers pulling their money out of fossil fuels and armaments companies, he saw a golden opportunity beckoning to buy in on the cheap. After all, for all the pearl-clutching, those companies weren’t going out of business any time soon.
From vegan cafes to airlines, sooner or later, hard-business reality is going to smack even the most determinedly virtue-signalling corporate in the face eventually.
A survey of more than 500 companies from Schneider Electric – the biggest adviser of Australian commercial power users – says 28 per cent have no intention of meeting their Paris Agreement commitments. A further 42 per cent say they have not begun decarbonising their operations.
They’re too busy actually doing what they’re supposed to – try and run a business at a profit – to bother pandering to “climate targets” that everyone knows are bullshit, from start to finish.
Especially small businesses.
The worst performers in meeting climate goals were smaller companies, healthcare, construction and professional services, with the Schneider survey revealing 18 per cent did not know where to start, while almost a quarter did not consider it a priority.
Schneider Electric’s principal and senior director for sustainability Lisa Zembrodt said many companies risked being exposed for their inaction by looming requirements to disclose decarbonisation strategies and targets.
In other words, these rent-seekers are low-key blackmailing already-struggling businesses to fall in line with their ideological dogma.
Still, it could be an opportunity, even if not the way the Climate Cultists think. After all, there’ll be no shortage of people keen to put their money into companies who aren’t brainwashed cultist ninnies.
Compounding the problem is big companies walking away from targets. A month before Air New Zealand conceded defeat, Telstra withdrew from the federal government’s Climate Active carbon-neutral labelling program after the initiative attracted strong criticism it was a “sham” and a fraud on taxpayers and the environment.
Which could describe the entire climate cult, now it comes to it.
“The urgency remains,” Ms Zembrodt said. “I think what these (companies) are signalling is some of the challenges that companies are facing and some of the thought processes that are changing as well.”
Or that they’ve woken up to the scam. Or that they’re quietly admitting that it was all bullshit, all along.
“Unpacking some of those thought processes of why a company might decide to make changes in their targets or make changes in the way they talk about sustainability or their emissions status are really interesting things and they reflect a better understanding of what we need to do to truly mitigate and adapt to climate change.”
The Climate Inquisition is coming for you, lads.
From next year, based on standards set by the International Sustainability Standards Board, Australia’s biggest companies will be forced to reveal extensive information on climate-related issues including governance, strategies, risk management and targets. The same requirements will be rolled out progressively to smaller businesses.
The Cult aren’t giving up easily.
