• Home
  • News
  • In-depth
  • Opinion
  • Energy
    • Wind
    • Marine
    • Solar
    • Biomass
    • Nuclear
    • CCS
    • Infrastructure
  • Policy
    • Politics
    • Legislation
    • Taxation
  • Management
    • Marketing
    • Risk
    • Skills
    • Incentives
    • Carbon Accounting
  • Technology
    • Waste
    • Recycling
    • R&D
    • Efficiency
    • IT
  • Investment
    • Carbon Trading
    • Offsets
    • Venture Capital
  • Net Zero Now
  • Events & Awards
  • SDG Hub
  • Industry Voice
  • Newsletters
  • Sign in
  •  
      • Newsletters
      • Account details
      • Contact support
      • Sign out
     
    • You are currently accessing BusinessGreen via your Enterprise account.

      If you already have an account please use the link below to sign in.

      If you have any problems with your access or would like to request an individual access account please contact our customer service team.

      Phone: +44 (0) 1858 438800

      Email: [email protected]

      • Sign in
  • Follow us
    • Twitter
    • LinkedIn
    • Newsletters
    • Facebook
    • YouTube
    • Instagram
  • Free Trial
  • Subscribe
  • Events & Awards
    • Upcoming events
      event logo
      NZF Pathway - Finance

      This exclusive half day online event will investigate how all businesses can support and accelerate the transition to low and net zero carbon buildings, while maximising the financial and productivity opportunities that will result.

      • Date: 16 Mar 2021
      • Online Event
      event logo
      Net Zero Festival 2021

      Net Zero Festival is the world's first business festival dedicated to exploring, advancing, and celebrating the global transition to a net zero emission economy. Join us at BusinessGreen's Net Zero Festival – for leaders who won't wait until 2050 to build a better business, and a better world.

      • Date: 29 Sep 2021
      • Worldwide
      View all events
  • SDG Hub
Business Green
Business Green
  • Home
  • News
  • In-depth
  • Opinion
  • Energy
  • Policy
  • Management
  • Technology
  • Investment
  • Net Zero Now
 
    • Newsletters
    • Account details
    • Contact support
    • Sign out
 
  • You are currently accessing BusinessGreen via your Enterprise account.

    If you already have an account please use the link below to sign in.

    If you have any problems with your access or would like to request an individual access account please contact our customer service team.

    Phone: +44 (0) 1858 438800

    Email: [email protected]

    • Sign in
  • Hot topics
  • Carbon offset markets
  • Green aviation
  • Deforestation
  • Net Zero Finance
  • Policy

What can businesses learn from the New Climate Economy report?

  • Nicolette Bartlett, Cambridge Institute for Sustainability leadership
  • 07 July 2015
  • Tweet  
  • Facebook  
  • LinkedIn  
  • Send to  
0 Comments

Nicolette Bartlett explains how the private sector can embrace green measures to boost growth

We all know that 2015 is a critical year for climate action and sustainable development, the agreement of a new treaty at the UN Conference of the Parties in Paris at the end of the year, following the agreement of the Sustainable Development Goals at the end of the summer. It will however look very different from the treaty we envisaged all those years ago in Copenhagen and even further back, in Kyoto.

But what should it look like?  Today’s Global Commission on the Economy and Climate’s New Climate Economy (NCE) report, of which Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership (CISL) was a contributor, makes the clear case for collaboration for innovation achieving both economic growth and closure of the emissions gap. 

Related articles

  • This Tax is Pants: The case for removing VAT on reusable period-proof underwear
  • No stone unturned: How getting to net zero touches every sector of the economy
  • The government is right to get strategic on bioenergy
  • Mindsets are shifting - with huge implications for business and sustainability

The second annual report identifies actions in 10 key areas which can drive growth and achieve as much as 96 per cent of the emissions reductions needed by 2030 to keep global warming under 2°C.

The report calls for any future agreements and successful action on climate change to be built on the bottom-up actions and contributions that international investors, business leaders, communities and governments are bringing to the table.  If designed well, this can provide a foundation framework that enhances economic, social and environmental action.

Our most recent work in this area has allowed us to make a significant contribute to the latest NCE report. And in the next few weeks we will be publishing a report containing five case studies of cooperative initiatives that involve the private sector - analysing the initiatives’ current and potential future emission reductions, as well as barriers to, and opportunities for, scaling up their impact.

Such collaborations can help to speed up the transition to a low carbon economy by increasing access to cutting edge research and development, new technologies and markets, and access to wider, tested best-practice knowledge bases, and momentum is building.  For example, 40 countries have adopted or are planning carbon pricing, and 28 countries are undertaking energy subsidy reforms, aided by lower oil prices. Over 1,000 major companies and investors have signaled their support for carbon pricing.

In addition, companies representing 90 per cent of the global palm oil trade have committed to ending deforestation across their supply chains by 2020. This goal is supported and facilitated by the Tropical Forest Alliance 2020. Ending deforestation would not only provide a stable, sustainable economic base for their products in the future but would also help reduce carbon emissions associated with cutting down trees.

The NCE report clearly shows how working in collaboration can help businesses deliver both economic growth, and make a significant contribution to driving down carbon emissions and managing climate risks. For example, businesses are driving a US$5.5tr global market in low carbon technologies and products and the CDP index of companies taking strong action on climate change outperformed the Bloomberg World Index of leading companies by 9.6 per cent over the last four years.

So what should these organisations take away from today’s report?  Here are six practical points for business:

  • Organisations should adopt and seek to achieve short- and long-term emissions reduction targets.
     
  • Sectors and value chains should agree to market transformation roadmaps commensurate with the long-term decarbonisation of the economy;
     
  • Common standards for measuring, reporting and verifying emissions should be adopted by companies, with results incorporated into integrated financial reports.
     
  • Businesses should work to ensure their representative groups and trade associations do not seek to block action on climate change, and speak out when they do.  
     
  • Regulators and shareholders should require companies and financial institutions to disclose critical carbon and environmental, social and governance factors, incorporating them in risk analysis, business models and investment decision-making.
     
  • The finance sector should increase long-term ownership and financing practices, and improve its capacity to facilitate the decarbonisation of the global economy.

While we’re clearly starting to see progress, there is a lot more potential.  Countries are currently in the process of announcing their “intended nationally determined contributions” (INDCs) for the Paris agreement that set out their emissions reduction targets for 2025 or 2030.  Already it is clear that when all have been added together, the sum total of countries’ national ambitions will fall short of the level required in 2030 to keep global warming under 2°C.   What’s more, fewer than 10 per cent of businesses with climate targets have long-term goals in line with a 2°C trajectory. 

Today the Global Commission on the Economy and Climate rightly urges the international community to seize the unique opportunities of 2015 and embrace a low-carbon, climate-resilient growth and development path, using the Paris agreement as a “floor, not a ceiling” to ambition, which can be scaled up as technological change and international partnerships create new low-carbon opportunities at lower cost.

Nicolette Bartlett is senior programme manager for the Cambridge Institute for Sustainability leadership.

This article is part of BusinessGreen's Road to Paris Hub, hosted in assocation with PwC.

Further reading

How a Paris deal can tackle climate change and boost the economy
  • Policy
  • 07 July 2015
New Climate Economy's 10 ways to solve climate change
  • Policy
  • 07 July 2015
  • Tweet  
  • Facebook  
  • LinkedIn  
  • Send to  
  • Topics
  • Policy
  • Climate change
  • In-depth
  • Paris Summit

More on Policy

    • Policy
'Build back better': G7 pledges to put climate action at heart of global recovery
    • Policy
    • 19 February 2021
    • Management
Global Briefing: US officially rejoins Paris Agreement
    • Management
    • 19 February 2021
    • Policy
Government hymns ARIA's potential to boost net zero transition
    • Policy
    • 19 February 2021
    • Investment
TCFD ASAP: Inside the fast-evolving world of TCFD reporting
    • Investment
    • 19 February 2021
The UN report aims to offer a blueprint for a sustainable post-pandemic world | Credit: Koala Kollectiv
    • Climate change
UN: Covid-19 recovery an 'unmissable opportunity' to invest in nature and net zero
    • Climate change
    • 18 February 2021
Green Home Grants scheme has been beset by administrative problems since its launch in 2020
    • Buildings
'Matter of urgency': Industry groups urge Ministers to 'fix' Green Homes Grant Scheme
    • Buildings
    • 18 February 2021
    • Infrastructure
National Infrastructure Commission asks 'where are the decarbonisation delivery plans'?
    • Infrastructure
    • 17 February 2021
The Chancellor Rishi Sunak is facing calls to slash VAT on green products in when he delivers the Budget on 3 March
    • Taxation
'Opportunity to reset': How MPs are urging the Treasury to use tax policy to drive green recovery
    • Taxation
    • 17 February 2021

More news

Bulb co-founder steps down to focus on battery storage venture
  • Energy
Bulb co-founder steps down to focus on battery storage venture

Amit Gudka 'compelled to look further into exciting and emerging field' of energy storage but will remain on boards of Bulb and its charity foundation

  • 19 February 2021
'Build back better': G7 pledges to put climate action at heart of global recovery
  • Policy
'Build back better': G7 pledges to put climate action at heart of global recovery

'We will put our global ambitions on climate change and the reversal of biodiversity loss at the centre of our plans'

  • 19 February 2021
Global Briefing: US officially rejoins Paris Agreement
  • Management
Global Briefing: US officially rejoins Paris Agreement

John Kerry declares 'today's the day', as the US rejoins the global effort to avert a climate catastrophe

  • 19 February 2021
This wallet can tell you about its carbon impact
  • Supply chain
This wallet can tell you about its carbon impact

Covalent reveals how Blockchain technology is offering a consumers a peek at its environmental footprint

  • 19 February 2021
blog comments powered by Disqus
Back to Top

Most read

'Bonkers savings': NatWest and Octopus Energy debut discounted EV charging package
'Bonkers savings': NatWest and Octopus Energy debut discounted EV charging package
Online supermarket Ocado launches dedicated 'aisle' for B-Corp brands
Online supermarket Ocado launches dedicated 'aisle' for B-Corp brands
Bulb co-founder steps down to focus on battery storage venture
Bulb co-founder steps down to focus on battery storage venture
Renewables overtake fossil fuels in 2020 as Britain's power grid enjoys 'greenest year' yet
Renewables overtake fossil fuels in 2020 as Britain's power grid enjoys 'greenest year' yet
'Phenomenal result': Lloyds Bank and Woodland Trust hit one million tree-planting target
'Phenomenal result': Lloyds Bank and Woodland Trust hit one million tree-planting target
  • Contact Us
  • Marketing solutions
  • About Incisive Media
  • Terms and conditions
  • Policies
  • Careers
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn
  • Newsletters
  • Facebook
  • YouTube
  • Instagram

Incisive Footer Logo

© Incisive Business Media (IP) Limited, Published by Incisive Business Media Limited, New London House, 172 Drury Lane, London WC2B 5QR, registered in England and Wales with company registration numbers 09177174 & 09178013

Digital publisher of the year
Digital publisher of the year 2010, 2013, 2016 & 2017
Loading