Sixty CEOs sign emissions pledge
Sixty companies that contribute almost half of New Zealand’s greenhouse gas emissions are pledging to help the country reach its net zero emissions target by 2050.
The businesses’ chief executives have formed the Climate Leaders Coalition following talks with the Sustainable Business Council.
The group includes leaders of Z Energy, Westpac, Nga¯i Tahu Holdings, Vector, Air New Zealand, Spark and New Zealand Post.
By signing the CEO Climate Change Statement, each leader has committed to reporting greenhouse gas emissions and working with suppliers to reduce emissions, with the aim of helping to keep global warming within 2 degrees Celsius, as specified in the Paris Agreement.
The businesses will individually set targets to reduce their emissions and will report on progress annually.
Z Energy chief executive Mike Bennetts, leading the collective commitment, said it would be up to consumers, media and the public to hold each business in the coalition accountable for every emission-reduction report they put out.
Z Energy has committed to reducing its emissions by 30 per cent by 2020 for its internal operations.
Bennetts said Z Energy sold 9.3 million tonnes of carbon to its customers but was also looking to reduce New Zealanders’ reliance on fossil fuels.
‘‘[It] sounds weird because we’re incentivising people to buy less of our products, but that’s what these public commitments enable us to do.’’
The chief operations officer for Fonterra’s global operations, Robert Spurway, said the dairy giant had also pledged to a 30 per cent reduction, but by 2030 from a 2015 baseline.
‘‘At the moment there is no legal requirement for businesses to complete emission reporting. The Government Z Energy chief executive Mike Bennetts, above right is looking at this over time, as part of New Zealand’s commitment to climate change, but this accelerates that . . . It’s a step in the right direction,’’ Spurway said.
Professor James Renwick, of the Victoria University school of geography, environment and earth sciences, said it was good news for climate change action in New Zealand.
‘‘This coalition, comprising almost half of the country’s greenhouse gas emissions and including some very prominent businesses such as Fonterra and Air New Zealand, has the potential to make a significant difference,’’ Renwick said.
‘‘The CLC group is responsible for a sizeable fraction of the country’s emissions of carbon dioxide, from transport, energy production, and industrial use of fossil fuels. These are sectors where emissions growth has been fastest in the past two decades.’’
Professor Tim Naish, an Antarctic Research Centre climate scientist, said it was significant that the aviation, dairy and petroleum sectors were signatories.
‘‘But just as it applies to governments that pledged in Paris, good intentions must translate into action, and time is short,’’ Naish said.
‘‘Agreeing to measure and report their emissions is a strong move. It is important they commit to ambitious targets in the first five years.
‘‘The science shows us that collectively if we leave it much longer this will require negative emissions and a technological solution.’’