Host of leading engineering, energy and IT giants reinforce calls for ambitious international climate change deal
Fourteen of the world' largest companies, boasting over $1.1tr in combined revenues, have become the latest blue chip firms to publicly call for the UN's upcoming Paris Summit to deliver an ambitious new international climate change treaty.
The group, which was orchestrated by the Center for Climate and Energy Solutions (C2ES) and includes oil giants BP and Shell, mining multinational Rio Tinto, and engineering firms Alstom and Siemens, issued a joint statement "in support of a Paris Climate Agreement".
The statement broadly backs the UN's current plans for an ambitious and wide-ranging new emissions reduction treaty based on a series of national action plan.
"We support the aim of a more balanced and durable multilateral framework guiding and strengthening national efforts to address climate change," the statement reads. "We believe the Paris agreement should commit all parties to undertake nationally determined efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions; provide strong transparency to hold countries accountable; require periodic renewal of national contributions to progressively strengthen the global effort; and facilitate international carbon markets."
It adds that the agreement should "at a minimum, include all of the world's major economies".
The statement also argues there are compelling business reasons for supporting a climate agreement that could provide long term policy signals, enhance transparency around government's policy intentions, address international competitiveness issues, and better facilitate the expansion of carbon pricing schemes.
The companies backing the statement, which also include Alcoa, BHP Billiton, Calpine, HP, Intel, LafargeHolcim, National Grid, PG&E, and Schneider Electric, together employ 1.5 million employees.
C2ES President Bob Perciasepe said the statement underlined the scale of the business support for an ambitious agreement, even among companies that will be directly impacted by emissions reduction efforts.
"These are companies with real skin in the game - either they're large emitters or their products are," he said. "They know emissions need to come down and are taking steps on their own. But they believe the low-carbon transition requires stronger leadership from governments, too. These leading companies support a Paris agreement that gets all the major economies on board, provides stronger long-term direction, and holds countries accountable."
The statement is the latest in a series of interventions from businesses in support of a Paris Agreement, including recent calls by a group of fossil fuel companies for a new international climate deal.
This article is part of BusinessGreen's Road to Paris hub, hosted in association with PwC
