The United Nations launched a task force Thursday to pressure businesses to keep their emissions-cutting promises instead of masking progress with feel-good "greenwashing".

The group will draw up standards for measuring the credibility of claims by non-state groups -- including cities and companies -- that they are cutting the carbon emissions driving devastating climate change.

The 16-member group of experts will be chaired by Canada's former environment minister Catherine McKenna and includes various academics and leaders from business, finance, energy, politics and NGOs.

Countries have agreed they must cap global warming at 1.5 degrees Celsius to avert the worst impacts. The UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) says this requires carbon-neutrality by mid-century.

But UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres warned that state pledges will not be enough if regional authorities, polluting companies and the banks that finance them do not pull their weight.

"We also urgently need every business, investor, city, state and region to walk the talk on their net-zero promises," he said, according to pre-prepared remarks released ahead of the group's launch.

In February, a landmark IPCC report on climate change impacts warned that time had nearly run out to ensure a "liveable future" for all.

A report by Boston Consulting Group found that some 3,000 companies had set some form of net-zero commitment by November 2021.

They included more than a fifth of those in the Fortune Global 2000 ranking of listed companies -- some 420 major world firms.

But companies are accused of "greenwashing" -- trumpeting climate pledges while taking action that undermines those goals.

The UN says greenwashing is made possible by a lack of common standards for assessing the credibility of carbon-cutting commitments and enforcing them.

It warns that pledges by fossil fuel companies to shift to methods such as carbon-capture technology are not enough -- carbon emissions must be actively reduced overall.

"The recent avalanche of net-zero pledges by businesses, investors, cities and regions will be vital to keep 1.5 degrees Celsius alive and to build towards a safe and healthy planet," McKenna said in pre-released remarks.

"But only if all pledges have transparent plans, robust near-term action, and are implemented in full."

Guterres said the new body -- the High-Level Expert Group on the Net-Zero Emissions Commitments of Non-State Entities -- will draw up such standards and aim to embed them in international regulations.

Similar initiatives are under way in the United States and the European Union.

Guterres asked the group to make recommendations by the end of the year.

"To avert a climate catastrophe, we need bold pledges matched by concrete action," he said.

"Tougher net-zero standards and strengthened accountability around the implementation of these commitments can deliver real and immediate emissions cuts."

Greta Thunberg to publish 'The Climate Book' in October
Washington DC (UPI) Mar 31, 2021 - Greta Thunberg will publish a book this fall, the 19-year-old Swedish environmental activist confirmed on Thursday.

The Climate Book will be published in October by Penguin Press, and will have several contributing authors.

"I've invited over 100 leading voices from around the world -scientists, experts, activists and authors to create a book that covers the climate- and ecological crisis from a holistic perspective," Thunberg said on Twitter.

Leading scientists and Canadian novelist Margaret Atwood are among those contributing the book, that Thunberg hopes will become "an essential tool" in the fight against climate change.

"This is the biggest story in the world, and it must be spoken as far and wide as our voices can carry, and much further still," Thunberg said in a statement to The Bookseller. "That's why I have decided to use my platform to create this book, which is based on the best science currently available -- a book that covers the climate, ecological and sustainability crisis holistically. Because the climate crisis is, of course, only a symptom of a much larger sustainability crisis. My hope is that this book might be some kind of go-to source for understanding these different, closely interconnected crises."

The book's synopsis says the contributing authors' testimonies "are presented here as compelling stories of change, action and resilience, amplified throughout by telling graphs and photographs."

Thunberg captured public attention in her early teens, when she publicly challenged global leaders to make tangible progress to save the planet in the fight against climate change.

In 2019, she was named as Time magazine's Person of The Year, the youngest person to ever receive the title.

"Greta has proven herself to be one of our finest and most galvanizing new writers," Penguin Press editor Chloe Currens told The Bookseller. "In a series of sharp, insightful and impassioned chapters, which knit the book's different parts together, she shares her own experiences and responds to what she's learned.

"Her passages on government inaction render today's greenwashing breathtakingly clear, and her call to climate justice is un-ignorable. This is a unique book, alive with moral purpose, which aims to change the climate conversation forever."

Related Links
Climate Science News - Modeling, Mitigation Adaptation

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