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The
United Nations and standard setter the International
Organization for Standardization launched the guidelines in
November to become a reference text and help organisations come
up with solid plans, avoiding slogans, hype and obfuscation.
While companies are increasingly pledging to cut greenhouse gas
emissions to as close as possible to zero, the benchmarks and
criteria they use "are often dubious or murky", the U.N. chief
told the Davos delegates.
"It leaves the door wide open to greenwashing," he said,
referring to unsubstantiated claims by some firms that their
products are ecologically friendly.
He urged the participants: "Put forward credible and transparent
transition plans on how to achieve net-zero – and submit those
plans before the end of this year."
"The transition to net-zero must be grounded in real emissions
cuts – and not rely on carbon credits and shadow markets," he
said.
The green energy transition of world powers has been one of the
central themes at the forum in Davos, where the European Union
said it would mobilise state aid to keep firms from relocating
to the United States as part of its Green Deal industrial plan.
Guterres said meaningful engagement on climate, trade and
technology between the United States and China - at loggerheads
over issues ranging from trade to human rights - was essential
to prevent confrontation.
"We risk what I have called a Great Fracture – the decoupling of
the world's two largest economies," he said.
"This is the last thing we need."
In comments about global preparedness for another pandemic,
Guterres said the world had failed to learn the lessons from
COVID-19.
"We are nowhere near ready for pandemics to come," he said.
(Reporting by Reuters Davos team; Writing Gabrielle Tétrault-Farber;
Editing by Alison Williams)
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