Ford Still Has Time To Meet Its Climate Pledges: Report

January 7, 2024 12:11 pm

Back in June 2020, Ford announced that it planned to achieve carbon neutrality globally by 2050, while setting interim targets to more urgently address climate change challenges. Since then, the automaker has taken numerous actions to help it reach that goal, chiefly centered around making its production facilities greener and ramping up its EV footprint, though the latter movement took a bit of a hit recently as demand hasn’t quite kept up with expectations. Regardless, Ford isn’t alone in this regard, as many of its rivals have set similar goals in recent years, though ultimately, some of those marks may be difficult to reach, according to Automotive News.

To hit its goal of becoming carbon neutral by 2050 – which refers to achieving zero carbon emissions by balancing such emissions with carbon removal – Ford plans to use 100 percent locally sourced renewable energy for all its manufacturing plants by 2035, and will also focus on vehicle use and supply base. Together, these three areas account for 95 percent of the automaker’s CO2 emissions. Recently, Ford joined RouteZero, a coalition that aims to reach a 100 percent mix of zero-emission vehicles across the globe by 2040. FoMoCo obviously has plenty of time to reach these aforementioned goals, though other automakers aren’t quite on track to make a large enough impact, according to at least one analyst.

“All of the automakers really spell out in detail their own plans to deal with [carbon from their operations and production processes], but their biggest emissions come from the products they sell,” said Anand Gopal, executive director of Energy Innovation Policy & Technology, a nonpartisan energy and climate policy think tank. “And there, their pledges are woefully short of what’s needed.” On the same token, others note that consumers must accept EVs for this entire process to play out.

“I think the temptation is always there, but most of the carbon commitments are set for 2040 or 2050,” said Stephanie Brinley, associate director of AutoIntelligence for S&P Global Mobility. “It’s hard to say that if they backslide in 2024 or 2026, that they won’t be able to achieve a commitment they made for 2040. It would be more concerning if that happened in the first half of the next decade. But consumers are the wild card. They just have to start buying this stuff, and right now, prices are elevated.”

We’ll have more on Ford’s plans to become a more environmentally-friendly company soon, so be sure and subscribe to Ford Authority for the latest Ford business news and 24/7 Ford news coverage.

By Brett Foote

Brett's lost track of all the Fords he's owned over the years and how much he's spent modifying them, but his current money pits include an S550 Mustang and 13th gen F-150.