Three-quarters of the companies listed on the Amsterdam stock exchange registered an increase in carbon dioxide emissions last year, according to a survey carried out by the Volkskrant.

The four firms that have managed to reduce emissions – ING bank, the chemicals firms DSM and Akzo Nobel and energy concern Shell – have done so mainly as a result of one-off activities, the paper says.
Of these four firms, only ING and DSM were also able to book economic growth to compensate for lower carbon emissions. ING achieved lower emissions by reducing business travel and buying green power while DSM reduced its energy consumption.
Only 16 of the 25 companies listed on the blue chip AEX index supplied data for the Volkskrant’s survey. These produced a total of 120 million tons of CO2 emissions, the equivalent to the exhaust fumes of 40 million cars.
The Volkskrant’s survey is in sharp contrast to research published by the national statistics office CBS last month which concluded that economic growth has not led to increased pollution.