Organizers
of the Global Climate Action Summit (GCAS) taking place this September in San
Francisco have provided new evidence of how cities, states, regions, businesses
and investors are taking climate ambition to the next level.
In this
way, they are helping to build momentum for a successful outcome for the UN
Climate Change Conference in Katowice, Poland (COP24) at the end of the year.
Specifically,
11 new commitments from Mahindra, among India’s largest business houses, push
the number of major global companies with science-based targets to over 400.
The
summit in San Francisco will be hosted by the Governor of California, Jerry
Brown; the UN Secretary-General’s Special Envoy for Climate Action, Michael
Bloomberg; the Chairman of the Mahindra Group, Anand Mahindra; and the
Executive Secretary of UN Climate Change, Patricia Espinosa.
Speaking
to delegates and journalists on the margins of the ongoing UN Climate Change
Conference in Bonn, Anirban Ghosh, Chief Sustainability Officer of the Mahindra
Group announced that business had taken an important step forwards today.
In total,
13 of its companies have now committed to cut their emissions in line with the
Paris Agreement goals by signing-up to a science-based target.
Welcoming
this development, Summit Co-Chair and top UN Climate Change official Patricia
Espinosa said, “At COP24 in Katowice, the world has much to accomplish to
ensure that the Paris Agreement delivers the desired result, which is to keep
climate change within manageable limits. Thankfully, the revolutionary progress
underway in the ‘real world’ economy, which will descend on California in
September, will be instrumental to helping make Poland a success.”
To date,
over 700 leading businesses around the world have made strategic climate
commitments through the We Mean Business coalition’s Take Action campaign.
Collectively, these companies represent 2.62 gigatons of emissions, which is
equivalent to the total annual emissions of India.
The
announcement by the Mahindra Group responds to one of the five “Summit
Challenges” being presented to sub-national governments, business and civil
society worldwide in advance of the Global Climate Action Summit.
Its
commitment falls under the second of the five challenges – Inclusive Economic
Growth – and means that so far 400 companies have positively reacted to this
particular “call to action,” which aims to sign on 500 companies by the
conclusion of GCAS in September.
Anand
Mahindra, Mahindra Group Chairman said, “There is remarkable congruity between
the goals of the Paris Agreement, the Indian Government, and businesses like
the Mahindra Group. India, like the Agreement, is driven by a strong belief at
the highest political level that pursuing environmental stability is the only
way forward. As a result, India has set extremely ambitious targets in the area
of renewable resources and is actually ahead of schedule in meeting some of
these. In my business, we are driven by the belief that sustainability is a business
opportunity as well as a way to make work meaningful for our young millennials.
So, from all angles, I am delighted to accelerate the momentum created by the
Paris Agreement.”
In
addition to adding critical momentum to the COP24 negotiations in Poland this
December – when governments of the world will meet to signal their readiness to
enhance ambition – the GCAS will build momentum for a strong outcome at the
Climate Summit convened by UN Secretary-General António Guterres in 2019 and to
elevate climate action plans – Nationally Determined Contributions, or NDCs –
by 2020.
Nick
Nuttall, Global Climate Action Summit Communications Director said, “2018 is
the year when the world must step up climate action to bend down emissions by
2020 -- and set the stage for the fast and full implementation of the Paris
Climate Change Agreement and its crucial temperature goal. The Summit will
bring businesses, states, cities, regions, territories and people from around
the world together and in common cause to take climate ambition to the next
level".
To keep
warming well below 2 degrees C, and ideally 1.5 degrees C—temperatures that
could lead to catastrophic consequences—worldwide emissions must start trending
down by 2020.
The 2018
Global Climate Action Summit, hosted in San Francisco September 12 to 14, will
bring together state and local governments, business, and citizens from around
the world to showcase climate action taking place, thereby demonstrating how
the tide has turned in the race against climate change and inspiring deeper
national commitments in support of the Paris Climate Change Agreement.
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