2024/04
In Climate Week NYC, international corporations lead the way towards low carbon emission
2019/12
Tino Wang/ Delta Foundation
In September this year, the largest climate week in history (Climate Week NYC) is being held in New York. The world’s most influential politicians such as the president of Costa Rica, the president of Spain, prime minister of Denmark, the governor of California and former secretary of state and thousands of business leaders gathered to call for the immediate reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. In fact, this extravagant climate event has been held for 11 years. Since 2009, the Climate Group planned and held this event every year. The date is set in September which coincides with meeting of the United Nations General Assembly, trying to spark debate among nations regarding environmental issues.
Speech by the President of Spain, Pedro Sánchez (Source: La Moncloa)
Objective of temperature increase within 1.5℃: the Climate Group leads corporations forward
Before exploring the topics of this Climate Week, first we must introduce the Climate Group. This organization was established in 2004, capable of leading various mega international enterprises such as Google and Facebook. This organization promotes actions related to climate based on the objective of limiting temperature rise of no more than 1.5℃. Currently, the Climate Group has successfully promoted several reputation projects such as We Mean Business (in which Delta participated), RE100, EV100 (in which Delta participated), EP100, Under2 Coalition, Policy Action and Future Fund.
At this Climate Week, the Climate Group hosted series of workshops, hoping to promote a top-down approach to sustainable business opportunities. For example, once a corporation joins the EV100 or RE100 initiative, it must increase the business opportunities in clean energy industry. The process would also influence local supply chain to use electric cars or green energy. The best example is that after Apple joins the RE100 initiative, it demands that vendors of its supply chain need to switch to green energy.
However, faced with the expectation of the brand enterprises, the mid-stream vendors and downstream vendors must conduct financial and environmental assessments and possibly take their business environment into consideration before deciding to join the initiative. Regarding the EV100 initiative, the common difficulty is with logistics. That is before the electric trucks become universal, switching to electric vehicles in transportation is a challenge.
Ahead of the government, numerous corporations show their determination
Although reducing carbon emission brings many challenges for private businesses, on Climate Week NYC, many corporations committed to stricter objectives and operation standards. Some of these actions are even more aggressive than that of government agencies. For example, the world-renowned fashion group, Kering, and the world’s largest energy management firm, Schneider Electric, set a carbon-neutral target for their own operations and supply chain. Amazon made the commitment of purchasing 100 thousand electric trucks, 10 years earlier than originally planned. Over 80 corporations committed to science-based carbon reduction targets (SBT), developing climate related strategies based on scientific calculations. The target is to achieve zero net carbon emissions in 2050.
In addition, many corporations, including Unilever, agreed to contribute to objectives related to biodiversity. Through accession to the One Planet Business for Biodiversity coalition, protect and restore biodiversity through combinations of the supply chain and products, corresponding to the Global Assessment Report on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services, hoping to avoid the risk of the extinction of 1 million species. On the other hand, HP will work with WWF to restore 200 thousand hectares of forests and invest US$11 million in conservation.
In terms of the funds raised, the Climate Week also achieved great results: Totally 130 banks in 49 countries (representing US$47 trillion worth of assets) passed “The Principles for Responsible Banking” during the meetings of the meeting of the United Nations General Assembly, making commitments that their investments in the future would be consistent with the sustainable development goals (SDGs) of the Paris Agreement. And the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, World Bank and countries including the Netherlands, Switzerland and Germany announced plans to invest US$800 million to help over 300 million small food businesses cope with frequent floods, drought and extreme weather. Australian entrepreneur, Andrew Forrest, also donated US$300 million and invited the Fortune 500 companies to participate on their own initiative and end plastic pollution together.
As Climate Week NYC commenced, more international companies have gradually realized the risks and opportunities of climate change. Indeed, actions by the corporations are becoming more significant since the signing of the “Paris Agreement” and in the uncomfortable political atmosphere caused by Trump’s declaration to withdraw from the Paris Agreement. This “bottom-up” will become the new driver for this era.
