Aggregate Industries is a subsidiary of LafargeHolcim – the world’s largest cement producer.
You only have to look at AI’s record on CO2 emissions – or for that matter its proposal for Straitgate Farm to haul material 23 miles for processing, a total of 2.5 million miles in all – to tell that neither of these companies is taking our climate emergency seriously.
And that’s also the conclusion from a new study.
Financial Times analysis of Carbon Delta data shows "only 15 per cent [of the top 500 companies] are in line with the goals of the Paris climate accord, which seeks to limit global warming to well below 2C."
This analysis maps out each company’s current behaviour, and correlates it with the level of global warming it would imply by the end of the century if every company in the world made similar choices.
And LafargeHolcim is the worst of the bunch.
In fact, if other companies acted like LafargeHolcim, we would find ourselves not "well below 2C" but in a +6°C warmer world by the end of the century – within the lifetime of children being born today.
According to researchers: "5-6 degrees of average warming globally is enough to wipe out most life on the planet."
Contrast this finding, with the greenwash pumped out by LafargeHolcim:
Despite the direction of the graph, despite the ambition, despite the greenwash, in reality – as we posted in LafargeHolcim has a way with numbers – CO2 emission numbers – LafargeHolcim’s net CO2 emissions increased in 2018 to 121,000,000 tonnes*, up from 118,000,000 tonnes in 2017, up from 115,000,000 tonnes in 2016:
To put that 121 million tonnes of CO2 into context, it is equivalent to the emissions from 31 coal-fired power stations. To sequester this amount of CO2 would require 142 million acres of forest – an area more than twice the size of the UK.
Welcome to the world of LafargeHolcim – one of the biggest corporate polluters on the planet, increasing its CO2 output each year, acting in a way that would wipe out life on earth.
Question to @LafargeHolcim:— Datamap (@datamapio) June 18, 2019
How can you, who were once a Leader of Industry (2005-2007) in the @dowjones Sustainability Indices and are still on it in 2018, be so far off in your industry?
How is it possible that we find ourselves in a +6°C warmer world with you? pic.twitter.com/fK32b43m8t
But what about those working for LafargeHolcim and other such polluting companies? The BBC points to a coal mine reopening in Cumbria, and asks:
The mine will create at least 500 well-paid jobs, but there is a large environmental impact. Would you take a job at the mine?
As one interviewee puts it:
As a human civilisation, we all have to help each other. And we all have to work together. And it’s not just about me getting a good salary, it’s about ensuring that the world stays alive.
* Net CEM CO2 emissions. Total gross direct CO2 emissions 135Mt. Total indirect CO2 emissions 30Mt. Source: LafargeHolcim Sustainability Report 2018
