The United Nations released a new report last week that defines how governments and companies “greenwash” when promising net-zero pledges while simultaneously choosing actions that cause climate pollution.

First and foremost, the report states that there is no reason for any new investment in fossil fuels, the main contributor to climate change, and there is a need to decommission existing assets. 

“Using bogus ‘net-zero’ pledges to cover up massive fossil fuel expansion is reprehensible. It is rank deception. This toxic cover-up could push our world over the climate cliff. The sham must end,” UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said last week in Egypt. 

In 2021, the Tennessee Valley Authority set a target of reaching net-zero emissions by 2050. TVA is also currently planning 4,000 megawatts of natural gas, including a new gas plant west of Nashville. Natural gas directly emits carbon dioxide when burned, and, last week, a new data effort showed that oil and natural gas fields were the top 14 individual climate polluters worldwide. 

In 2021, TVA’s energy mix was about 44% fossil fuels — 28% gas and 16% coal. About half was nuclear and hydro power, and 3% was wind and solar. In its 10-K filing released this week, TVA reported that it now has about 800 megawatts of solar power in operation, and there are an additional 1,800 megawatts contracted. 

A recent Sierra Club report that examined climate pledges and actions by the nation’s utilities ranked TVA toward the bottom. TVA was highlighted as an example of “textbook” greenwashing, between its coal phaseout timeline, plans for new gas and limited renewable additions. TVA has the largest gas buildout planned this decade of any operating company in the U.S., and the utility has plans to replace less than a fifth of its existing coal and gas generation with clean energy, according to the report. 

In a statement on the UN greenwashing report, TVA listed past emissions reductions and its planned clean energy efforts, like how the utility issued a 5,000-megawatt carbon-free energy request for proposals. TVA did not directly address its fossil fuel plans.  

TVA said its path to decarbonization “may not always be linear.” 

Corporations delay climate action by greenwashing 

The International Panel on Climate Change’s latest scientific assessment shows that global emissions must peak by 2025 and be cut in half by 2030 to limit global warming to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels. 

This figure is meant to convey the urgency of the climate crisis. But utilities, governments and corporations have been manipulating the narrative of these deadlines to delay climate action, according to the UN report. 

“If greenwash premised upon low-quality net zero pledges is not addressed, it will undermine the efforts of genuine leaders, creating both confusion, cynicism and a failure to deliver urgent climate action,” the report authors wrote. 

Earth just reached record-high carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide levels this year. Every extra bit of global warming further destabilizes climates, leading to longer droughts, more intense heat waves and pandemics. 

To transform the energy sector to net-zero emissions by 2035, the nation would capture the most net benefits with an energy system that is predominantly wind and solar, with additional power supplied by storage, nuclear, hydrogen and hydropower, according to a study by the National Renewable Energy Lab, which is part of the U.S. Department of Energy.

Greenwashing, and the resulting lack of meaningful climate action, can be draining for people, according to Ash Gillis, a postdoctoral research fellow at Vanderbilt University who studies the psychological impacts of climate change. 

“It takes a lot of energy to want to do something different than the status quo,” Gillis said. “You pair that with greater levels of hopelessness about the climate crisis, and you have yourself a recipe for disaster.”

The UN report calls for greater transparency, science-based plans and third-party accountability with net-zero goals.