Fears of greenwashing from Paris deal architect

As France’s top negotiator leading up to the Paris Agreement, Laurence Tubiana was one of the main architects of a deal that aimed to steer the world away from climate change disaster.

The 2015 Paris Agreement on climate change called for capping global warming at well below 2 degrees Celsius above the pre-industrial level, and ideally closer to 1.5C. 

Now head of the European Climate Foundation, Tubiana remains a key player in crafting global climate policy and ensuring that the deal is implemented, including at the COP26 summit in Glasgow.

AFP interviewed Tubiana by telephone at the weekend on the sidelines of the UN talks. Her answers have been condensed and edited for clarity.

You have said greenwashing is the new climate denial. What does that mean?

I am of course happy about the many 2050 net-zero commitments, both from governments and the private sector. It was a target of the Paris Agreement, and it is great that this is now the benchmark. 

But most of these commitments cannot be verified. There is no mechanism for ensuring delivery, no capacity or authority to check these claims. 

Then there is the role of offsets. (Credits for planting trees or other carbon-reducing actions that can be bought to compensate for emitting C02 or other greenhouse gases). 

Many companies -- especially oil and gas firms -- include a lot of offsets in their net-zero plans. But there is solid research showing offsets currently don’t deliver any substantive emissions reduction. If that is true then this is a form of cheating. This is why I say greenwashing is the new climate denial.