Sian Crampsie
The World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) has called on governments to deliver an ambitious climate agreement in Paris next month.
WBCSD has launched a new report from PwC showing that the ambitions of its Low Carbon Technology Partnership initiative (LCTPi) could deliver 65 per cent of the carbon emission reductions needed to keep the rise in global temperatures to under 2°C.
More than 140 companies and 50 partners from around the world have signed up to LCTPi, which aims to drive the development and deployment of low carbon technology. The initiative could channel at least $5-10 trillion of investment in low carbon technology over the next 15 years, says WBCSD.
"Business leaders from around the world are taking action and showing governments their support in tackling the climate challenge. We must keep global warming under the critical 2°C threshold," said WBCSD President Peter Bakker. "The ambitions outlined in the Low Carbon Technology Partnerships initiative could deliver up to 65 per cent of the emissions reductions necessary to achieve this.
"However, business cannot do it alone. We urgently need an ambitious climate agreement in Paris to set the policy framework that will enable us deliver on our mutual goals."
PwC said that "smart, targeted policies" would be needed at national levels to achieve climate ambitions. "The deal in Paris must give business the certainty and ambition to invest in these opportunities for the long term," said Jonathan Grant, director, PwC Sustainability and Climate Change. "It's clear from our analysis that business has both a critical role to play in achieving national level targets, and has a major opportunity to grasp.
"The LCTPi is a platform for industry-wide transformation into the future, not just for the companies who are signed up to the initiative today."
The UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) welcomed the report and commended WBCSD for its "extraordinary leadership" in bringing companies together.
"The analysis presented ... - just weeks before the UN climate conference in Paris - underlines potential levels of emission reductions that are truly game-changing in terms of the support they provide to governments and international aspirations to keep a global temperature rise this century below 2°C," said Executive Secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) Christiana Figueres.
Figueres added: "The number of companies but also cities moving towards a low carbon world is of level, range and scope that is unprecedented. Paris offers an opportunity for more companies to come on board in order to accelerate a transition that has now become inevitable and irreversible."
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