Dr Rob Hales: Griffith Business School associate professor on the rise in corporations ditching their climate targets

There's been a growing uptick in corporations ditching their green ambitions.

Volvo Cars has abandoned its ambitious target to sell only electric cars by 2030 amid a global slowdown in growth for battery-powered vehicles.

Sweden has recently scrapped their aviation tax on airline tickets in a bid to reduce prices and boost availability.

Griffith Business School associate professor Dr Rob Hales says more businesses have decided to keep their targets quiet amid accusations of green-washing.

"Green-hushing is keeping your targets and keeping the mechanisms to try and get there a bit quiet. There's been some industry studies to show that up to 25 percent of businesses are actually disclosing, in public, what their targets are."

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Now we got another corporate as I was telling you earlier,
who ditched its climate targets. Volvo has just announced it's
going to abandon the plan to be fully electric by
twenty thirty. Add to that, GM done a similar thing,
for done a similar thing in New Zealand, and even
a country, Sweden abandoning similar plans. Associate Professor Doctor Rob
Hale specializes in sustainability at Griffith Business School in Queensland

(00:20):
and is with us.

Speaker 2 (00:21):
Hey Rob, Hi, how are you doing very well?

Speaker 1 (00:23):
Thank you? Why do you think Volvo set the twenty
thirty target if they couldn't achieve it well.

Speaker 2 (00:30):
I think a few years ago there was a lot
of noise, a lot of excitement about net zero targets,
and I think this was all great to get corporate
businesses across the world, not just New Zealand, interested in
this area. And I think what's happening now there's a

(00:51):
bit of a maturation or maturity happening within corporations. And
there's some other factors as well coming in terms of
transparency and actually being able to deliver on some of
the claims. But I think there's a little bit more
maturity in terms of how we can actually go about
near zero.

Speaker 1 (01:09):
Obviously, what they're doing is getting ahead of what was inevitable. Right,
It's much better to ditch it in twenty twenty four
than to get to twenty thirty and be busted.

Speaker 2 (01:17):
Right, that's correct. And in New Zealand there is a
case in terms of greenwashing coming up in the courts there,
and there has been a number of cases in Australia,
quite a few in Australia whether the corporate regulator is
actually examining the claims of corporations quite seriously and finding

(01:41):
and taking businesses to court and also issuing notices to
comply with the advertising of their claims for sustainability and
climate change.

Speaker 1 (01:52):
Ah. So do you anticipate then that this is just
the start of it? I mean, we're going to see
a lot more businesses walk away from their twenty thirty
targets as we approach it.

Speaker 2 (02:00):
Well, I don't think so. I think what's going to
happen is a term called green hushing. You might know
about green washing, but green hushing is actually keeping your
targets and keeping the mechanisms to try and get there
a bit quiet. So there's been some industry studies out
there to show that you know, up to twenty five
percent of businesses aren't actually disclosing in the public what

(02:22):
their targets are, but they're actually going ahead with, you know,
trying to meet targets and got good mechanisms to do
so within their business. But they're just being a little
bit more reserved about how they go about advertising these things,
mainly because of the liability issues of false advertising.

Speaker 1 (02:40):
And do they just announce it? Do they announce it
then if they reach it and they just keep it quiet,
if they don't.

Speaker 2 (02:46):
Yeah, yeah, they're or they're waiting to see how they go.
I think they're not. They may be saying that they're
committed to net zero. You know, this is a claim
that it's quite easy to maintain over time. But to say,
you know that you're getting out of the petrol game,
which one company in New Zealand said they're going to,

(03:07):
and then that got them into a little bit of
trouble because they're getting out of it, but then petrol
sales increased in their business. You're talking about, that's correct, Yes, yeah,
so you know, who knows where that's going to land
in terms of the outcome. But the fact that it's
going to you know, it's being disputed, means that companies

(03:28):
are being very careful about claims that they're making now.
But it doesn't mean they say that they're necessarily shying away.
Because you've still got legislation in New Zealand and soon
to be introduced in Australia next early next year in
terms of accountability standards, sustainability accountability standards coming in.

Speaker 1 (03:46):
Rob there are obviously industries who will really struggle them.
In the airline sector is one that's going to struggle
because what's the alternative. You know, like there's just not enough,
there's not enough sustainable aviation fuel to be able to use.
But what proportion of industry do you think is actually
going to be able to meet its targets in twenty
thirty across an economy.

Speaker 2 (04:06):
That's a good question. I think there's another factor in
here as well which makes it difficult to answer, is
that the one point five scenario that was dated to
be twenty fifty if you've been following that, I think
in COP twenty nine coming up, we're going to see

(04:27):
a shifting of the date of when one point five
realistically is going to occur. Like, we've got a one
point five net zero target. Yeah, and we've had you know,
one point five degrees happened for more than five years
in a row. The average over ten years is what determines,
you know, what is one point five degrees in the globe.
So you know, I can I could bet my house

(04:49):
that that date is going to change as to when
we have the target set for net zero one point five.
It's not going to be twenty fifty.

Speaker 1 (04:58):
When is it going to be Well.

Speaker 2 (05:00):
It's hard to say. I was actually just talking to
a colleague about it beforehand. It's hard to say where
it's going to land. You can look up quite easily
in Nature and other peer review journals talking about the
twenty thirties as when the one point five degree mark
is going to be crossed, you know, and that's probably
what's going to be debated at COP twenty nine coming up.

(05:21):
So when a company says, oh, yes, we're going to
be aiming for one point five twenty fifty, there are
challenges trying to meet that. But then there is extra
dimension of you know that that target I believe is
going to change downwards any terms of time, So that
poses even more challenges for businesses that are really progressive

(05:44):
and even making those targets. So let alone the ones
that you know in industries that are hard to abate
like airlines and also companies that rely a lot on
transport as well, that that's quite a tricky one.

Speaker 1 (06:00):
Thank you, I really appreciate your time. It's doctor Rob
Hale's associate professor specializing in sustainability at Griffith Business School
in Queensland. For more from Hither Duplessy Allen Drive, listen
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