A few years ago, the global climate movement surged with optimism. Millions of young people marched, corporations made bold climate promises and political leaders spoke urgently of a looming crisis demanding immediate action. Today, the wind has left the sails of this movement and attention has shifted to global geopolitical and economic turmoil.
It is no wonder that fatigue and a sense of despondency has set in. Recent high-profile corporate backtracking from climate commitments shows the fragility of pledges when attention and accountability drift.
In 2020, BP, the energy giant, pledged to cut oil and gas production by 40 per cent by 2030. Under the leadership of then chief executive Bernard Looney, the company also promised to be a net-zero energy producer by 2050. By early 2023, however, that commitment had shrunk to just 25 per cent and by October 2024 the target was abandoned entirely. Instead of cutting fossil fuel output, BP now plans to expand oil and gas production significantly, aiming for about 2.4 million barrels of oil equivalent per day by 2030, and to slash renewable energy investments. Justifying this “reset”, current chief executive Murray Auchincloss said their faith in the green energy transition had been “misplaced” and that oil and gas would be needed for decades.
BP’s reversal shows how easily companies can pivot away from climate promises when financial pressures mount and public attention fades.
Another example comes from the food sector. Raising cattle to produce beef requires vast amounts of land and is the primary driver of deforestation globally, as well as a major emitter of methane from belching cattle. Land conversion for beef production and logging is causing such pressure on the Amazon that the great rainforest is at risk of crossing a critical and irreversible tipping point, which would see it emitting, rather than sequestering carbon, and becoming a grassland.
Shareholder value – profit – is the dominant force, not environmental responsibility. The solution is for governments to regulate and tax robustly to force polluting companies to clean up, but political will is in short supply
JBS, the world’s largest meat producer, has long been linked to the destruction of the Amazon. In 2021, the Brazilian giant pledged to eliminate deforestation from its Amazon beef supply chain by the end of 2025. The ambitious commitment was widely applauded at the time. Yet, a recent investigation by Unearthed, the Guardian and Repórter Brasil paints a different picture. Despite technology investments and claims of sustainability breakthroughs, JBS’s suppliers openly dismiss the goal as impossible, and the company has quietly tempered expectations. Illegal cattle laundering persists; loopholes remain widespread. In other words, what sounded like a firm commitment has turned into something altogether less certain. Notably, JBS previously committed in 2009 to address deforestation by 2011 but failed to follow through.
Such statements amount to a quiet retreat from accountability, a shifting of responsibility that directly contradicts the bold promises that initially won JBS global praise. In 2024, JBS faced litigation for greenwashing, accused by the New York State attorney general of misleading consumers about its commitment to climate while continuing to drive deforestation.
These examples from JBS and BP signify an alarming trend of corporate backsliding that undermines global climate action. As global attention drifts from climate to other pressing issues, the pledges of the past few years risk turning into hollow gestures.
This erosion of corporate responsibility matters deeply because each broken promise sends a message to the public and policymakers alike that climate commitments are negotiable, further weakening collective action and ambition. For example, here in Ireland, meeting our own commitment to cut greenhouse gas emissions requires changing farming practices and dramatically cutting our consumption of fossil fuels – both undermined by weakening corporate commitments.
Brett Christophers, a professor specialising in political economy, has noted that hollow environmental pledges are an unsurprising feature of capitalism, which is our society’s prevailing organising principle. Shareholder value – profit – is the dominant force, not environmental responsibility. The solution is for governments to regulate and tax robustly to force polluting companies to clean up, but political will is in short supply.
All this corporate backtracking occurs against an alarming backdrop. The atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide is 430 parts per million, 50 per cent greater than pre-industrial levels and the highest level in millions of years. Last year, there was a historically high jump in carbon dioxide concentration, beating the previous record by 27 per cent. This is a dark omen that climate change may be accelerating, as emissions from human activities keep rising and the ability of ecosystems to absorb excess emissions may be waning. Even now at 1.5 degrees of warming, climate change is causing severe impacts on living standards and creating economic shocks across the globe.
Time is not on our side – there simply isn’t room for backsliding. Real progress requires slashing emissions; not pledges.
Hannah Daly is professor of sustainable energy at UCC
