Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - February 8, 2022, Winnipeg, Manitoba ● WINNIPEGFREEPRESS.COM B7TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 8, 2022 C M Y K PAGE B7 BUSINESS The Canadian government has introduced the Digital News Subscription Tax Credit that Winnipeg Free Press subscribers can claim on their personal income tax and benefit return from the years 2020 to 2024. Digital-only subscribers can claim the total amount paid for a Winnipeg Free Press digital subscription during the year. Print newspaper subscribers can also claim this credit using the qualifying standalone digital subscription rate. The Winnipeg Free Press will email a subscription receipt to the primary email address on file for all subscription accounts by the end of February. This receipt will include the qualifying amount that you can claim on your tax return. If you do not have an email address on file and would like to receive a subscription receipt, please email your name, address and phone number to fpcirc@winnipegfreepress.com. Did you know a Winnipeg Free Press subscription is eligible for the DIGITAL NEWS SUBSCRIPTION TAX CREDIT? For more information, please visit: winnipegfreepress.com/tax-credit E X C L U S I V E D I G I T A L C O L L E C T I O N | H E A D S T A R T Everything you need to know to start your day Head Start features a brief recap of news you need to know, upcoming stories, trending topics, daily weather, and this day in history. Available between 7 and 10 a.m. on winnipegfreepress.com Want to receive Head Start sent straight to your inbox weekday mornings? Visitwinnipegfreepress.com/email to sign up. BRIEFS PETER THIEL LEAVING BOARD OF META MENLO PARK, Calif.— Peter Thiel, a Silicon Valley billionaire and adviser to former president Donald Trump, is leaving the board of directors of Facebook parent company Meta. The company said Monday that Thiel will stay on until Meta’s next shareholder meeting later this year, where he will not stand for re-election. Thiel joined Facebook’s board in 2005, a year after the company was founded and seven years before its made its debut on Wall Street. But he has been an increasingly polarizing figure among the company’s directors due to his conservative politics. “Peter is truly an original thinker who you can bring your hardest problems and get unique suggestions,” Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said in a statement. “He has served on our board for almost two decades, and we’ve always known that at some point he would devote his time to other interests.” SOME BUSINESSES MET HACKERS’ DEMANDS TORONTO—More than a half of Canadian busi- nesses targeted by cybercriminals in 2021 paid the amount of money requested by their hackers, with thirty-three per cent of those organizations getting a negotiator involved. Fifty-six per cent of companies surveyed by IT consulting firm Novipro, in collaboration with Leger, paid the full amount, the study found. Canadian businesses have become increasingly susceptible to cyberattacks as many employees continue to work remotely. Nearly 43 per cent of respondents are more worried about cyberattacks now compared with before the COVID-19 pandemic. That number was higher in Ontario, where 56 per cent of businesses citing higher concern levels. The study found that two-thirds per cent of or- ganizations are taking the time to review their se- curity practices, but suggested that organizations are still moving slowly on preventive measures, with just 40 per cent of respondents planning to offer training on cyberattacks. The percentage of companies training their teams has declined over the last few years, Novipro says. This data come from a survey conducted be- tween Oct. 1 and 25, 2021, with 491 respondents. —from the wire services Report: Corporate climate pledges areweaker than they seem N EWYORK—Manyof theworld’slargest companies are failing totake significant enough steps to meet their pledges to vastly reduce the impact of their greenhouse gas emis- sions in the decades ahead. That’s the conclusion of a new re- port by the NewClimate Institute, an environmental organization that works to combat global warming. Its researchers, who examined the ac- tions of 25 companies, concluded that many of them are misleading consum- ers by using accounting practices that make their environmental goals rela- tively meaningless or are excluding key parts of their businesses in their calculations. The companies have pledged to make their emissions reductions or to offset their emissions through such techniques as planting carbon-captur- ing forests over self-imposed periods ranging from 2030 to 2050. The authors chose to study corpor- ate giants, including Amazon and Wal- mart, which made bold climate pledg- es and who, because of their size, are seen as especially influential. In re- cent years, large corporations have in- creasingly adopted pledges to signifi- cantly reduce their carbon footprints — a priority of growing importance to many of their customers, employees and investors. NewClimate Institute concluded that even though many companies have pledged to reach net-zero emissions, the 25 companies they studied have collectively committed to reduce emis- sions by about 40 per cent — not the 100 per cent that peoplemight be led to believe from the companies’ net-zero or carbon-neutral pledges. “We were frankly surprised and dis- appointed at the overall integrity of the companies’ claims” said Thomas Day of NewClimate Institute, one of the study’s lead authors. “Their ambitious- sounding headline claims all-too-often lack real substance, which canmislead both consumers and the regulators that are core to guiding their strategic direction. Even companies that are do- ing relatively well exaggerate their ac- tions.” Among the 25 companies the re- searchers studied, 24 relied too heav- ily on carbon offsets, which are rife with problems, the report said. That’s because carbon offsets often rely on carbon removal ventures such as re- forestation projects. These projects suck up carbon but are not ideal solu- tions because forests can be razed or destroyed by wildfires, re-releasing carbon into the air. Most of the companies, the report said, presented vague information on the scale and potential impact of their emissions-reduction measures or might have exaggerated their use of renewable energy. The report called Amazon’s goal of net-zero carbon by 2040 unsubstanti- ated. It said it was unclear whether Amazon’s goal referred solely to car- bon dioxide emissions or to all green- house gases. The report also said it was not clear to what degree Amazon planned to reduce its own emissions, as opposed to buying carbon offset cred- its which rely on nature-based solu- tions. In response, Amazon said it has been transparent about its investments in nature-based solutions, and disputed that its net-zero goals are based on off- sets. The company said it’s on a path to- ward powering its operations with 100 per cent renewable energy by 2025, five years ahead of its original target of 2030. It also highlighted other initia- tives including deploying 100,000 elec- tric delivery vehicles by 2030. The NewClimate report said that Nestle, among the companies with the lowest marks, had emissions-reduction plans that covered only portions of its business and that its net-zero targets relied upon carbon offsets. The com- pany also provided little detail on the renewable electricity sources it was pursuing, it said. Nestle responded that its emissions reduction targets do cover all its activ- ities, that it’s reducing greenhouse gas emissions 50 per cent by 2030 and that its factories and offices are switching to renewable electricity. Jonathan Overpeck, dean of the school for environment and sustain- ability at the University of Michigan, who had no role in the NewClimate report, said: “Far too many companies are coming up short when it comes to meaningful decarbonization. Corpor- ate decarbonization goals and plans formeeting them are generally far less compelling than needed for success in halting climate change.” Some other outside experts sug- gested that theNewClimate report was too critical of carbon offsets. “Forest-based offsets are challen- ging, but they can be real and import- ant,” said Christopher Field, director of the Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment at Stanford University. “A too-strong emphasis on decarbon- ization paths that don’t include offsets will slow overall progress and raise costs.” The report did note some things it said the companies are doing well. Shipping company Maersk received the best ratings despite the challenges its industry faces in reducing emis- sions. The authors noted that Maersk is pursuing alternative fuels and has partnered with a renewable energy company to establish a factory for e- methanol. Maersk did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Most of the companies studied, 15 of them, have outlined plans to reduce their “Scope 1” and “Scope 2” emis- sions, which are emissions released directly by the company or by its using electricity, the report said. But those companies didn’t address their “Scope 3” emissions; these include emissions released by suppliers or customers that use their products. Scope 3 emis- sions account for, on average, 87 per cent of all emissions for the 25 com- panies studied, the group said. The report commended Walmart, which pledged to be net-zero by 2040, for following good practice by com- mitting to reduce its operational emis- sions to zero without the use of offsets and setting near-term goals for those reductions which include using 100 per cent renewable energy by 2035. But Walmart was faulted for not including Scope 3 emissions. Walmart does have a voluntary program that guides its product suppliers to reduce emissions, and nearly a quarter of its suppliers have joined, the report said. Walmart responded that it does have a goal to reduce or avoid one billion metric tons of Scope 3 emissions and that it reports its progress openly. —The Associated Press CATHY BUSSEWITZ TED S. WARREN / THE ASSOCIATED PRESS FILES Carbon offsets often rely on carbon removal ventures such as reforestation projects. B_07_Feb-08-22_FP_01.indd 7 2022-02-07 8:48 PM ;