Corporates sign up to 2˚C Challenge on climate change

Corporate businesses from around the world today unveiled a Communique to prompt governments into action on climate change. The 2˚C Challenge Communiqué, written and signed by 192 business leaders from […]

Corporate businesses from around the world today unveiled a Communique to prompt governments into action on climate change. The 2˚C Challenge Communiqué, written and signed by 192 business leaders from Europe, Africa, North and South America and Asia, warns that “the window to stabilise global warming to less than 2°C, as agreed in Cancún, has almost closed.”

The signatories, including Shell, Tesco, EDF Energy, Thames Water and BSkyB, want a global agreement, but the leaders add that national governments mustn’t wait on an international decision to set to work.

They call for countries to introduce policies to force markets to cut emissions, such as the carbon floor price introduced in the UK.

Christiana Figueres, Chair of the UNFCCC negotiations said: “Governments have already established a clear, collective path to a low-carbon future but the world will need to cut emissions faster in the coming years to meet the full challenge of climate change.”

The Communique signatories, members of the newly created Corporate Leaders Network for Climate Change (CLN), also push for governments to drum up public and private funds promised at Copenhagen and Cancún of $100bn a year by 2020 to help countries struggling to become low carbon societies, ideally through the international GreenClimateFund.

Vincent de Rivaz, EDF Energy’s Chief Executive said: “The massive investment that we and others are proposing in clean, secure and affordable energy is part of the growth agenda and will create jobs and opportunities.”

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