Tuesday, July 14, 2026

World’s most influential companies make nature promises, but most lack accountability

New research by the University of Oxford and the Stockholm Resilience Centre at Stockholm University has revealed that most biodiversity commitments made by large influential companies are not precise enough to enable society to evaluate whether they are making progress towards their commitments. The results have been published in One Earth.

The problem with the accountability gap

Researchers identified 180 large transnational ‘keystone’ corporations across multiple sectors with significant environmental impacts and disproportionate influence over the biosphere. Although 79% had made some form of biodiversity pledge, only 13% reported sufficiently detailed, transparent, and specific (robust) commitments1 to allow others to assess if targets have been met – a fundamental prerequisite of accountability.

Over the past 50 years, keystone corporations have gained significant influence over the world's resource reserves, production and trade. Biodiversity is rising on the corporate agenda – most of the companies in the study sample made pledges – but currently these commitments are not sufficient to be fully accountable.

Senior author Dr Sophus zu Ermgassen (Department of Biology, University of Oxford) says: “Companies must be both ambitious and practical: meaningful commitments go further than just pledging to actions required by law, but also must consider clear implementation plans. Improving commitments is just the first step.”

Dr Thomas White (Department of Biology, University of Oxford), co-author of the study says: “Whilst it is promising to see biodiversity pledges being made by many companies, for most of these companies, we currently can't tell exactly what the promises mean and whether actions are contributing towards global goals. With clear and ambitious goals and actions, keystone corporations could have the leverage to act as biosphere stewards and drive transformative change.”

How to spot an inadequate pledge

The research also helps to highlight how to spot a real commitment from a hollow one. Amongst commitments deemed as not robust, several issues repeatedly occurred: vagueness and lack of specificity; seemingly contradictory or incorrectly defined terminologies; and selective use of evidence to justify inaction or limited ambition.

For example, an agrochemical company cited an analysis that they themselves had jointly commissioned to make the dubious claim that pesticides are not a main driver of insect decline.

Dr Jean-Baptiste Jouffray (Stockholm Resilience Centre, Stockholm University), co-author of the study says: “A serious biodiversity commitment should make clear what is being targeted, where, by when, and how progress will be assessed. Without that, it is little more than a statement of good intentions. Regulators, investors, scientists and civil society need information they can use to identify risks, assess ambition and track progress over time.”

Sector differences

Commitment robustness varied substantially across sectors. 18 of the 23 companies with at least one target meeting all criteria belonged to the agriculture and farming sector. Within the cocoa sector, all five assessed companies (representing 56% of global processing and grinding) made commitments, with four making robust commitments meeting all criteria, and the fifth making commitments meeting most criteria. A similar trend was seen in the soybean sector, where five of six companies (controlling 42% of global sourcing) made robust commitments.

In contrast, biodiversity commitments were sparse in sectors such as animal pharmaceuticals and oil and gas. Among animal pharmaceutical firms (ten companies representing 81% of the global market), half had no biodiversity commitments.

89% of corporations in the sample published some kind of publicly available report, but none produced a stand-alone biodiversity report. Of 13 companies for which no reports were found, six were national oil companies.

Barriers and improvements to pledges

The researchers highlight several potential barriers to effective pledges: lack of alignment with commercial interests; exposure to reputational risk if they fall short of targets (so-called ‘greenhushing’); limitations in available knowledge and guidance on commitment setting; and data limitations on the biodiversity impacts of their supply chains.

The researchers suggest several ways of prompting improved commitments:

Mandatory reporting requirements: address disparities in reporting.
Business-science collaboration: facilitate knowledge exchange and provide data and guidance to support target setting.
Sector-wide sustainability initiatives: enable pooling of knowledge and resources.
Increased participation in voluntary initiatives: guidance to identify and address impacts, dependencies, risk, and opportunities, as well as setting clear targets
Pressure from stock exchanges, financiers, and stakeholders: e.g. integrate biodiversity disclosure and target setting requirements into listing requirements.

The research marks a new milestone in efforts to identify the companies with the largest influence over the biosphere and clarify their responsibility in helping to halt and reverse biodiversity loss. By showing where current commitments fall short, the study provides a method and a foundation for stronger accountability.

Notes to editors

The paper ‘Evaluating the Biodiversity Commitments of Earth's Keystone Corporations’ has been published in One Earth: https://www.cell.com/one-earth/fulltext/S2590-3322(26)00148-X

Interviews with Dr Sophus zu Ermgassen, Dr Thomas White, and Dr Talitha Bromwich are available on request: sophus.zuermgassen@biology.ox.ac.uk, thomas.white@biology.ox.ac.uk, talitha.bromwich@smithschool.ox.ac.uk.

Several parts of the University of Oxford were involved in this research including: the Department of Biology’s Nature Positive Hub, the Leverhulme Centre for Nature Recovery, and Oxford EARTH.

The Stockholm Resilience Centre is part of Stockholm University.

Additional details

Criteria used to assess commitments include whether the commitment specifies: the aspect of biodiversity to which the commitment relates; the scope of the commitment; the environmental pressure targeted; the timeframe; a baseline; how the commitment is measured; a quantitative target, and progress towards this target.

About the University of Oxford

Oxford University has been placed number 1 in the Times Higher Education World University Rankings for the tenth year running, and number 3 in the QS World Rankings 2024. At the heart of this success are the twin-pillars of our ground-breaking research and innovation and our distinctive educational offer.

Oxford is world-famous for research and teaching excellence and home to some of the most talented people from across the globe. Our work helps the lives of millions, solving real-world problems through a huge network of partnerships and collaborations. The breadth and interdisciplinary nature of our research alongside our personalised approach to teaching sparks imaginative and inventive insights and solutions.

Through its research commercialisation arm, Oxford University Innovation, Oxford is the highest university patent filer in the UK and is ranked first in the UK for university spinouts, having created more than 300 new companies since 1988. Over a third of these companies have been created in the past five years. The university is a catalyst for prosperity in Oxfordshire and the United Kingdom, contributing around £16.9 billion to the UK economy in 2021/22, and supports more than 90,400 full time jobs.

The Department of Biology is a University of Oxford department within the Maths, Physical, and Life Sciences Division. It utilises academic strength in a broad range of bioscience disciplines to tackle global challenges such as food security, biodiversity loss, climate change and global pandemics. It also helps to train and equip the biologists of the future through holistic undergraduate and graduate courses. For more information visit www.biology.ox.ac.uk.

Journal

One Earth

DOI

10.1016/j.oneear.2026.101747

Article Title

Evaluating the biodiversity commitments of Earth’s keystone corporations

Are 988 and other mental health crisis lines missing people over 50?

Poll finds 31% of older adults don’t know of any crisis line, and 69% haven’t heard of 988; lowest awareness is among men and Hispanic adults, who have high or rising suicide rates

Michigan Medicine - University of Michigan

Awareness of 988 Lifeline and other mental health crisis lines — image:
Awareness of the 988 Lifeline and other mental health crisis lines among adults age 50 and over
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Credit: Emily Smith - University of Michigan

In the four years since the launch of the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline, the nationwide service for mental health and substance misuse crisis support, Americans have dialed, texted or chatted online with the service over 26 million times.

The addition of 988 to the nation’s mental health crisis options makes it easier to get immediate counseling and access other help if needed.

But a new University of Michigan poll shows that many middle-aged and older adults still aren’t aware of these free services, or aren’t sure about using them.

Among people aged 50 and over, 31% have never heard of any mental health crisis line, according to a new report from the National Poll on Healthy Aging, based at the University of Michigan Institute for Healthcare Policy and Innovation.

The majority of those polled (69%) had never heard of 988. But this includes 38% who had not heard of 988 but had heard of another mental health crisis line.

Asked what they would do in case of a mental health emergency, 56% of people aged 50 and over said they are very or somewhat likely to use a mental health crisis line.

And 46% also said they would be very likely or somewhat likely to call 911, which is intended for life-threatening situations, medical emergencies and crimes in progress, though it can send appropriate calls to 988.

“These data show a clear need to focus awareness-raising efforts on people over 50,” said Kevin Saulnier, Ph.D., an Assistant Professor in the U-M Department of Psychiatry and a clinical psychologist at the VA Ann Arbor Healthcare System who worked with the poll team. “No matter which crisis line they choose, they and those who love them should know that there’s someone available to talk, text or webchat with them at any hour of any day, for free.”

He notes that the 988 service also provides one-touch access to the Veterans Crisis Line, whose counselors specialize in helping veterans and current members of the military.

The poll is supported by Michigan Medicine, U-M’s academic medical center. In addition to the national poll, the team also created a Michigan-specific report and data dashboard based on findings from Michigan adults aged 50 and over for the Michigan Poll on Healthy Aging, supported by the Michigan Health Endowment Fund.

On nearly all poll questions, older Michiganders had similar responses to their peers in other states, with one notable difference: If they were experiencing a mental health crisis, Michigan adults aged 50 and older were slightly more likely to say they would contact 911 (52% in Michigan vs. 46% in the rest of the U.S.).

The national 988 Lifeline is run by a nonprofit organization through federal grants; states and the federal government have provided temporary funding for the organizations that handle most of the 988 calls in each state, but most states including Michigan have not yet established ongoing sources of funding.

Differences in awareness and willingness to call

Men and people of Hispanic ethnicity were less likely than women and non-Hispanic white adults, respectively, to say they had heard of at least one mental health crisis line.

In fact, 46% of all Hispanic adults over 50 said they were not aware of any mental health crisis hotline.

The 988 Lifeline is available in Spanish as well as English and offers services for those who are deaf or hard of hearing and those who prefer to connect in other languages.

After asking about general awareness of 988 and other mental health crisis lines, the survey explained 988 to all respondents, then asked how comfortable they would be contacting 988 if they or a person they knew were experiencing a mental health crisis.

In all, 75% of all people aged 50 and older said they would feel at least somewhat comfortable contacting 988 once they received this explanation.

But men were much less likely than women to say they would feel comfortable reaching out to 988, at 68% vs. 81%.

Saulnier and fellow U-M and VA psychologist and mental health researcher Mark Ilgen, Ph.D., find these gaps especially concerning.

“Men in general have almost four times the suicide death rate as women, and the suicide rate among Hispanic adults has risen in recent years,” said Ilgen, who is a Professor of Psychiatry at U-M and a clinical psychologist at the VA Ann Arbor Healthcare System. “Suicide rates among all people over 50 are now higher than the rates among teens and young adults. Better awareness of what to expect when contacting a crisis line could be key to increasing use of such services, and might reduce the toll of suicide in this age group.”

Among adults aged 50 and older who had heard of 988, 4% said they had contacted the service since it launched. The percentage was higher among those aged 50 to 64 (6%) than among those age 65 and over (1%). Half of those who had contacted 988 said they had done so to get help themselves, and half said it was to help someone else.

Saulnier and Ilgen point to a recent Harvard University study that showed that suicide death rates among teens and young adults dropped faster than expected in the first two and a half years after 988 launched.

That study also looked at suicide trends among adults over 65 as a comparison. While it showed a drop after 988’s launch, it was much smaller than the drop among the people aged 15 to 34.

A role for healthcare professionals and others

The poll results suggest key roles in mental health crisis response for people who provide physical, mental and spiritual care to people over 50, and for their friends and relatives.

Most adults aged 50 and over said that in a mental health crisis, they would be very likely or somewhat likely to turn to a friend or family member (83%), their regular healthcare provider (82%), a mental health professional (73%), or someone in their religious community (37%).

A third of those polled (32%) said they had taken at least one action in the last year regarding their mental health, including 21% who had talked with a friend or family member about a mental health concern, 16% who had talked with their regular healthcare provider, 12% who had seen a mental healthcare professional, and 3% who had talked with a person in their religious community.

“Those of us who care for people over 50 in any capacity should look for opportunities to share information about 988 and other crisis services, because anyone can have a mental health crisis, or encounter a friend or family member who is having one,” said poll director Jeffrey Kullgren, M.D., M.S., M.P.H., Associate Professor of Internal Medicine at the U-M Medical School and a primary care physician at the VA Ann Arbor Healthcare System.

Confidentiality and privacy are paramount in healthcare, mental health services and spiritual care, he said, and a similar theme emerged in the poll data.

Half (49%) of the survey respondents expressed at least one concern about contacting 988, with privacy the most common, mentioned by 26%. Asked what might make them more likely to contact 988, 40% of all older adults mentioned the ability to remain anonymous.

Kullgren notes that 988 is confidential, in that it only collects the information shared by those who contact it and does not pinpoint their location. Its counselors get consent before sharing information with anyone, but like all healthcare providers they must follow state laws requiring reporting in situations where there is imminent risk of harm.

Saulnier, Ilgen and Kullgren are members of the VA Center for Clinical Management Research, and of IHPI. Saulnier and Ilgen are members of the U-M Eisenberg Family Depression Center.

About the poll

The 2025 poll findings come from a nationally representative survey conducted by NORC at the University of Chicago for IHPI and administered online and via phone in September 2025. The survey module on 988 went to 2,379 respondents age 50 to 95 from the AmeriSpeak panel. The Michigan-focused analysis includes 1,265 Michigan adults aged 50 to 93, including a non-probability oversample. Results are weighted to reflect each respective population.

Read past National Poll on Healthy Aging reports and Michigan findings, and learn about the poll methodology.

Method of Research

Survey

Subject of Research

People

Results from a poll of people over 50 showing where they would turn for help in case of a mental health crisis

Credit

Emily Smith - University of Michigan

World’s first superconducting quantum heat engine offers path to larger quantum computers

A newly-developed superconducting quantum heat engine not only advances our understanding of thermodynamics but also enables technologies needed for high-qubit quantum computers

Aalto University

A newly-developed superconducting quantum heat engine not only advances our understanding of thermodynamics but also enables technologies needed for high-qubit quantum computers.

Recent improvements in our understanding of how the principles of thermodynamics apply in the quantum realm could give a boost to quantum technology, and a clearer picture of quantum thermodynamics could reciprocally enhance our understanding of classical thermodynamics. Now Aalto University researchers have demonstrated the first cyclic quantum heat engine inside a superconducting circuit.

Physicists have become increasingly fascinated with the idea that classical thermodynamics could be combined with quantum mechanics. Quantum mechanics captures the behaviour of particles on tiny scales—smaller than atoms—while thermodynamics is about large systems, from molecules up to the entire universe. How do strange quantum phenomena like tunneling, entanglement and superposition mix with the stolid familiarity of the heat engines that kickstarted the industrial revolution?

Heat engines, like James Watt’s famous steam engine, convert heat into useful energy, into work. They power our cars, ships, and planes, and heat engines are how most power plants generate electricity. Now, the world’s first superconducting quantum heat engine has been built: a tiny device consisting of a transmon qubit, a resonator and a quantum refrigerator.

The superconducting engine harnessed the miniscule amount of heat found in ultracold quantum conditions to cyclically output positive work, a long-sought goal for quantum engineers. The device provides a solid proof of concept for superconducting heat engines, which could be used to develop improved technology for quantum computers.

The study, led by Academy Professor Mikko Möttönen, was published in Nature Commuincations on 13 July, 2026.

A carefully engineered cycle

The team created an Otto cycle—the thermodynamic process that powers car engines, among other things—inside a superconducting circuit.

’In our experiment, we built a nanofabricated heat engine using superconducting circuits and operated it in a cryostat near absolute zero. At its heart is a transmon qubit, one of the basic building blocks of modern quantum technologies,’ says Tuomas Uusnäkki, the study’s first author.

By connecting the transmon qubit to a quantum-circuit refrigerator, the team could control the flow of heat at a quantum scale and show that it can be converted into measurable work. Unlike a typical heat engine, which uses separate hot and cold sources, the quantum heat engine relies on a quantum refrigerator to provide both heat and cold.

‘Our quantum-circuit refrigerator can be tuned to both heat and cool the qubit on demand. Using carefully timed control pulses, we drove the engine in an Otto cycle and monitored the qubit state as the engine ran,’ explains Uusnäkki.

The researchers saw that the heat flowing through the qubit in the cycle was generating positive work.

‘This is the first experimental demonstration of a cyclic quantum heat engine in superconducting circuits. Using a single controllable quantum refrigerator as both the hot and cold environment of the engine makes it simpler and more versatile,’ says Uusnäkki.

Autonomous heat engines for future quantum computers

The team is working to improve their design, aiming to create an entirely autonomous heat engine that could do things like read out qubits without the need to bring the microwave pulse from millikelvin to room temperature. An autonomous engine on a superconducting circuit could reduce the cost and complexity of high qubit-count computers in the future.

‘Finland’s Quantum Technology Strategy envisions a quantum computer with one thousand logical qubits by 2035, which probably means hundreds of thousands of physical qubits. Doing that with current technology requires millions of microwave cables costing thousand euros each. The cables also introduce noise into the system. Using autonomous devices instead would mostly eliminate the need for those cables,’ Möttönen says.

The researchers used the facilities of OtaNano, Finland’s national research infrastructure for nano-, micro- and quantum technology in their pioneering study. The work was funded by the Research Council of Finland and the Finnish Cultural Foundation.