A survey of over 700 businesses across 14 countries has shown that Australian businesses are more inclined than their international counterparts to scale down attempts to reduce carbon emissions when the economy weakens.
However, Deloitte’s survey of private businesses with annual sales of between A$366 million and A$14.6 billion (US$250 million and US$10 billion) also revealed that higher than the global average, about two-thirds of the 50 Australian executives polled supported new regulations and a crackdown on “greenwashing.”
The 2022 Climate Check was conducted right before the Cop27 climate conference, which took place in Egypt last month. It also came before Australia’s most recent greenhouse gas data, which revealed that the country’s emissions had nearly remained unchanged in the year leading up to June. Estimated pollution levels were 486.9Mt CO2-equivalent, which is 0.1% or 0.4Mt CO2-e more than they were a year earlier.
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According to reports, many Australian businesses would scale back their own climate action due to higher inflation or other economic problems, although Australia is still falling short of the Albanese government’s legally mandated target of reducing emissions by 43% below 2005 levels by 2030.
Compared to the global average of 12%, one in five of the Australian businesses questioned by Deloitte indicated they would have to cut back on their efforts significantly over the next 12 months. Comparatively to the total figure of 8%, another 12% said they would “temporarily” stop those activities to start again in a year.
However, slightly above the 37% global average, 42% of Australians surveyed intended to speed up their sustainability efforts in the upcoming year.
Story was adapted from the Guardian.
