Corporates fight gas emissions
Almost 90 big companies in sectors from food to cement are pledging to slash their greenhouse gas emissions in a new campaign to steer multinationals towards a low-carbon future, organisers said on Sunday.
Almost 90 big companies in sectors from food to cement are pledging to slash their greenhouse gas emissions in a new campaign to steer multinationals towards a low-carbon future, organisers said on Sunday.
We Mean Business, a coalition of advocacy groups, said dozens of companies had joined the initiative in the two months leading up to a UN summit on Monday, which aims to spur faster action on climate change.
“Now we need many more companies to join the movement, sending a clear signal that markets are shifting,” UN secretary-general Antonio Guterres said in a statement.
The coalition was launched in June with a call to action by the UN, business and civil society leaders. We Mean Business says 87 companies are involved, with a total market cap of more than $2.3-trillion.
Some companies in the coalition have agreed to slash their carbon emissions to net zero by 2050, including Swiss food company Nestle, French building materials company Saint-Gobain and French cosmetics maker L’Oreal.
Others have stopped short of committing to go carbon neutral but say they will align their operations with a goal of limiting the increase in average global temperatures to 1.5°C enshrined in the 2015 Paris Agreement.
This group includes Finnish telecoms company Nokia, French food group Danone and British drug maker AstraZeneca, We Mean Business said.
As accelerating climate effects from melting ice caps to sea-level rise and extreme weather outpaces climate models, scientists say the world needs to halve greenhouse gas emissions over the next decade to avoid catastrophic warming.
With fossil fuel companies still developing new oil and gas fields and many developing countries expanding coal-fired power, the coalition’s pledges are minuscule relative to rising global emissions.
Some experts have questioned whether publicly traded companies committed to maximising shareholder returns will be able to make the sweeping investments required.
Yet many investors have been putting pressure on companies to act on climate risks, and CEOs face pressure from an upsurge in youth-led activism, which mobilised millions around the world on Friday.
NOW WE NEED MANY MORE COMPANIES TO JOIN THE MOVEMENT, SENDING A CLEAR SIGNAL THAT MARKETS ARE SHIFTING
We Mean Business believes pledges by a core of mostly European, and some North American and Asian companies, to commit to independently verified emissions targets will prompt others to follow suit.
“These bold companies are leading the way towards a positive tipping point where 1.5°Caligned corporate strategies are the new normal for businesses and their supply chains,” said Lise Kingo, CEO of the UN Global Compact, which promotes responsible business practices.
Guterres sees the private sector as crucial to securing more ambitious pledges at Monday’s Climate Action Summit in New York, which aims to boost the Paris climate deal before it enters a crucial implementation phase in 2020.