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Too little, too late?

At its first digital ESG (Environment, Social and Governance) Conference for investors and analysts, Mercedes-Benz announced actions aimed at cutting CO2 emissions while creating value for all  stakeholders. “The shift towards climate neutrality is changing the financial world and green financing is gaining in importance. Therefore, the variety of green financing instruments like Green ABS and green KPI-linked bilateral funding agreements will be increased. Mercedes-Benz also expects a significant increase in EU taxonomy aligned CapEx until 2026 in accordance with its all-electric strategy,” said Mercedes. As promised at the COP26 UN Climate Change Conference* in November 2021, Mercedes-Benz wants a faster transition to electric cars. The question facing all major automakers is whether this it too little to late to stop the extreme weather, property destruction, social disruptions and perhaps extinction of people inhabiting planet earth.

The German auto industry is currently under heavy criticism for its lobbying the German government to not impose sanctions on the use of Russian or other fossil fuels, saying it can’t be done. However, the latest UN report – IPCC’s Sixth Assessment Report (AR6) – says: “The application of diverse policy instruments for mitigation at the national and sub-national levels has grown consistently across a range of sectors By 2020, over 20% of global GHG emissions were covered by carbon taxes or emissions trading systems, although coverage and prices have been insufficient to achieve deep reductions. By 2020, there were ‘direct’ climate laws focused primarily on GHG reductions in 56 countries covering 53% of global emissions. Policy coverage remains limited for emissions from agriculture and the production of industrial materials and feedstocks.” Continue reading →