A new study alleges that major technology companies such as Google and IBM are underreporting their greenhouse gas emissions at a time when companies' role in climate change is under criticism.
According to the research, both businesses are among 56 prominent tech companies that fail to disclose all of their greenhouse gas emissions.
Detailed in a new study published in the journal Nature Communications, researchers at the Technical University of Munich looked into the type of emissions known as scope 3.
They discovered, for example, that Alphabet, the parent company of Google, routinely reported emissions but forgot to include specific pollutants in those reports.
IBM was shown to have given inconsistent carbon footprint reports, eliminating key types of emissions and reporting different emissions to different audiences.
Laura Draucker, senior manager of corporate greenhouse gas emissions at the nonprofit business research group Ceres, agreed with the Nature paper's conclusion that firms' disclosure of emissions has to improve.
"Companies can use estimates and screening tools to identify hot spots for climate risk along their value chain, and they can set goals and take actions now to meet those goals - while at the same time, working to improve data collection and quality," Draucker, who was not involved in the study, told USA Today.
"However, we cannot wait for perfect data," she added.
Many of the top US companies, according to Ceres' report, lack ambitious climate commitments.
To keep global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius, global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions must reach zero by the middle of the century. This decarbonization problem has raised political and public pressure on businesses to report their GHG emissions, and pushed internal and external stakeholders to prioritize climate action.
As a result, big corporations have recently proclaimed their intention to become carbon neutral, if not carbon negative.
President Joe Biden declared in April that the U.S. would aim to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 50% to 52% below 2005 levels by 2030.
The COP26 climate change summit, which begins next week in Glasgow, Scotland, is projected to attract 30,000 people. Biden, Barack Obama and Greta Thunberg are among the names anticipated to visit Scotland's largest city.
It has been considered by many as the world's last attempt to avoid an impending climate catastrophe.
