Business leaders call to accelerate net-zero actions

Geneva, Oct 24

More than 100 senior executives from the Alliance of CEO Climate Leaders, the world’s largest CEO-led community committed to net zero emissions, signed an open letter on Tuesday ahead of the COP28 climate conference.

They called on leaders from the public and private sectors to accelerate net-zero actions to reduce carbon emissions for the benefit of society, public health and the global economy.

The latest IPCC report has confirmed that the world is on course to breach the critical barrier of 1.5 degrees Celsius warming within the next two decades, setting a path to cascading climate tipping points and irreversible damage to the earth’s planetary systems.

Limiting the average global temperature increase to 1.5 degrees would require 50 percent emissions reductions by 2030 -- amounting to annual emission reductions greater than what was achieved during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“The scale of decarbonization needed by 2030 is insurmountable unless we urgently work together to bend the emissions curve,” said Borge Brende, President of the World Economic Forum.

“The pathway to these emissions reductions will be paved with a complex mix of the right policies, technologies and infrastructure, which is why public-private collaboration has never been more important. This open letter sends a powerful message to world leaders at COP28 to introduce bold and transformative policies that will help the private sector do its part to achieve the 50 percent emissions reductions that we need by 2030.”

Success in achieving these emissions reductions, however, is dependent on support from governments to overcome significant barriers that hinder decarbonisation action -- from lengthy administrative processes that slow the development of renewable energy projects and weaknesses in grid infrastructure and power networks, to technological constraints that delay efforts to scale up manufacturing capacity for early-stage decarbonisation solutions.

In the open letter, the Alliance of CEO Climate Leaders calls on world leaders to: scale up investment in renewable energy and power networks, and streamline permitting and regulatory processes. While global investment in renewable energy reached a record $0.5 trillion in 2022, this is still less than a third of the annual investment needed towards 2030.

Governments should therefore rapidly scale up renewable energy and invest in the required grid infrastructure including storage and supply chains, as well as energy efficiency.

Lead by example by adopting low-emission public procurement practices. Public procurement is a significant share of GDP; 14 per cent in the EU alone. If 14 per cent of an economy adopts low-emitting procurement practices, this will send a strong market signal to suppliers to improve their products and services and can facilitate the uptake of breakthrough solutions.

The Alliance calls on governments to set ambitious, science-based procurement targets to create demand drivers and support the development of supply chains.

In addition, the open letter calls on fellow business leaders to raise their ambition on climate action by setting science-based targets and increasing the transparency of their emissions by publicly disclosing emissions data.

“We must accelerate the transition to net-zero, and we have no time to waste,” Ester Baiget, CEO of Novozymes and Co-Chair of the Alliance of CEO Climate Leaders said.

“The alliance represents a clear step forward for private-sector collaboration on climate action. As we approach COP28, it is paramount that we connect with governments to show that there is a path to net-zero and that we are fully committed to getting there. We call on fellow private sector leaders to commit and public sector leaders to pave the way for accelerated action.”