Exxon, Apple and other corporate giants will have to disclose all their emissions under California’s new climate laws – that will have a global impact::California is the world’s fifth-largest economy. Laws tested there often spread across the U.S. and around the world.

  • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    52
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    1 year ago

    Will it have an impact? Exxon says, “our emissions were ___ amount of CO2, ___ amount of methane, [etc.]” Then they say, “by the way, we couldn’t give less of a shit” and go back to business as usual. How does this change anything they do? As the article even says, plenty of them are voluntarily reporting it anyway.

    • WhatAmLemmy@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      30
      ·
      1 year ago

      More importantly, what are the requirements for accuracy and what are the penalties for wild guestimations or falsifying data?

      If everything else in the US is any indication, Exxon will be like “we emit 2 carbons” and the government will respond with “here’s a fine that’s 1/10th the expense you would incur if you made a legitimate attempt at reporting your emissions”… “and don’t you forget it!!”

    • nottheengineer@feddit.de
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      17
      arrow-down
      3
      ·
      1 year ago

      Exxon won’t give a shit, but apple probably will. Half of their marketing is greenwashing, so they’ll have to think of something new.

      Maybe some people will also understand that corporations aren’t their friends, but with apple users that’s a rather slim chance.

      • dependencyInjection@sh.itjust.works
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        11
        ·
        1 year ago

        Check this, I worked at Apple on the bar for 3 years and every year we would wear blue for most the year, red for Christmas and get this, green for Earth day.

        So they would ship shirts around the world every year for these. You could use your old ones but they always gave more.

        I brought it up to a manager that the green one is laughable as we are celebrating earth day by shipping green shirts around. I’m pretty sure they stopped it now but it always struck me as insane.

        I also, had some discussions about how well we got treated in the UK but my American counterparts not so much and my Asian counterparts even less, but I always got the we don’t control the Foxconn stuff etc.

        It’s all words really and their bottom line is making money.

        • MrSpArkle@lemmy.ca
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          2
          ·
          1 year ago

          Not saying we shouldn’t pressure corporations to do better, but one of the unintended consequences here is that Apple’s green initiatives and disclosures are in part simply a product of tight vertical integration. At a certain point pollution is simply resources not optimally exploited and extracted, and those inefficiencies are lost profits. Meeting environmental goals at that point will be easier for large conglomerates than for smaller players, thus encouraging the rise of more conglomerates.

    • MrSpArkle@lemmy.ca
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      11
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      1 year ago

      Just another opportunity for green washing. The Exxon report should just be a letter-headed page saying “yes”.

    • WallEx@feddit.de
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      9
      ·
      1 year ago

      We would then have data that we didn’t have before, which enables legislation. This is how democracy works in this world.

      Do you think Exxon reports? Truthfully?

      • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        4
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        1 year ago

        I think Apple reports and Google reports because the article says so. What’s been done about it? Where’s the legislation.

        As far as truthfully- what makes you think Exxon will be honest?

        • WallEx@feddit.de
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          3
          ·
          1 year ago

          It will be closer to the truth than before. I also hope that they actually check the data given, which is normal for taxes for example.

          Also I don’t think the emissions of apple, Google and Exxon are even in the same realm, but that’s pure speculation, because Exxon does oil and my expectations are, that that’s dirty.

            • WallEx@feddit.de
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              1
              ·
              1 year ago

              Check it for correctness like they do with taxes. Via inspection or something.

              • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
                link
                fedilink
                English
                arrow-up
                1
                ·
                1 year ago

                And then what? What makes you think anyone will give a shit, especially politicians that they donate tons of money to?

                • WallEx@feddit.de
                  link
                  fedilink
                  English
                  arrow-up
                  1
                  ·
                  1 year ago

                  Then we will know something closer to the truth, Its not like it’s going to solve the problem, but it’s still a step in the right direction imho.

                  I just hope that this enables NGOs to have reliable numbers to base their campaigns on or something like that. Every bit helps.

    • Ghostalmedia@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      5
      ·
      1 year ago

      It will have an impact on investment. Environmental ratings are already starting to impact how easily companies can acquire funding for growth.

      Which is why big oil is lobbying so hard against ESG data now.