Despite well-known environmental impacts over several decades, little has been done to achieve the necessary reduction in environmental damage. Many targets have been set, especially regarding greenhouse gas emissions and fishing quotas but often they are not met, and instead replaced with new targets and new quotas. Still, the number of greenhouse gases released every year has increased, the level of habitat destruction is still increasing and fishing quotas continue to be exceeded.

Figure 11: Estimated change of habitat range sizes of the world’s mammals, birds, and amphibians between 1700 and 2016, relative to potential natural ranges in 1850. Coloured areas represent 10% (red), 20% (orange), through to 90% (blue) of range changes across 16,919 species. The black line shows the across-species median. (Source: Beyer & Manica, 2020)

Companies often make bold claims about their environmentally responsible credentials, but how much substance is there? There are widespread criticisms that large companies and governments are not honest about their impact and that data is manipulated for political and commercial objectives rather than making meaningful change.

Company sustainability assessments are often conducted in-house, if at all, with little transparency over how the data is collected or analysed. Sustainability assessments often promote the messages they want, with other issues being hidden from view. Carbon trading has become an industry in itself with dedicated companies that will facilitate the buying and selling of carbon emission allowances and credits through trading and offsetting schemes. However, much of this is hidden under political and corporate claims with little transparency and historically has been open to abuse, sometimes with little substance to the claims and questionable mitigation schemes with only short-term gains, if at all. There is an increased feeling of deflection and “Greenwashing” of the issues rather than meeting necessary targets and many initiatives are lucrative money-making schemes rather than aiming to meet the necessary reduction targets.