Apple and climate neutrality: criticism of the use of eucalyptus farms

How will Apple succeed in achieving its big goal of climate neutrality? As the iPhone group had already announced, this is only possible if large CO₂ compensation projects are pushed. According to Apple, at least 25 percent of the climate reductions in the entire supply chain should be created. The problem: The measures are controversial among environmentalists, especially since the carbon dioxide emissions actually arise when manufacturing and using the Apple devices and Between 300 and 1000 years Lang – so the NASA – remain in the atmosphere. In a comprehensive report, the US edition of with Technology Review has now busy with Apple. In the article, the group criticized the group’s compensation projects.

Eucalyptus plantations in Brazil because they grow quickly

One of the planned measures is to build up gigantic eucalyptus plantations in the Brazilian rainforest – where it was previously cut down. The tree species does not actually belong here, but has the advantage that it grows quickly (and can be harvested quickly to produce wood). The projects are not only pushed by Apple, but also by competitors such as Meta, Microsoft and suppliers such as TSMC.

The hope: The eucalyptus farms should become a scalable air conditioning solution-for an industry that releases more and more emissions, for example in AI data centers. The calculation is simple: each of the trees consists of approximately 47 percent carbon. So many tons of CO₂ can be saved per planted hectare, according to the plan.

Better grow instead of not cutting off?

The old idea of ​​climate compensation measures went like this: take an area in the rainforest, for example, which should actually be cut down – and pay for it to be left. In this context, however, frauds have occurred in the past. Sometimes the rainforest should not be cut down, sometimes the compensation rights were sold twice and triple. At Apple, one now hopes to be more “hands on”, writes with Technology Review by putting money directly into projects that pull the climate of the atmosphere.

This should enable the rapidly growing eucalyptus trees that store the carbon in their lignin. But environmentalists such as Giselda Durigan from the environmental research institute of the Sao Paulo status fear that the new farms are pulling too much water. Native vegetation is hardly supported. “The rivers die.” Another problem is that the eucalyptus farms are sometimes abandoned. Then it was almost impossible to give room for native plants because the earth has changed so much. Apple emphasizes for the farms to use pastoral land no longer required.