12 South African Companies Join the global call for climate change deal
Twelve South African companies have joined more than 500 companies worldwide in a call for governments to agree on an ´ambitious, robust and equitable global deal on climate change´ that will respond credibly to the urgency of the crisis. They say it is ´critical´ that world leaders lay the foundation for low-carbon growth now and avoid locking the world economy into a high-carbon future.
This part of the hard-hitting message contained in the Copenhagen Communiqué, a document signed by more than 500 companies from more than 50 countries, which is aimed to coincide with the UN Summit on Climate Change in New York today. Maria Ramos, CEO of Absa Bank, will attend and a copy will be handed to UN Secretary general Ban Ki-moon.
The companies say that economic development will not be sustained in the long term unless the climate is stabilised. Developed countries must make ´immediate and deep´ emission cuts and developing countries, such as South Africa, must draw up emission reduction plans. “These are difficult and challenging times for the international business community and a poor outcome from the UN Climate Change Conference will only make them more so. In contrast, if a sufficiently ambitious, effective and globally equitable deal can be agreed, it will create conditions for change in our global economy and deliver the signals companies need if they are to invest billions of dollars in low-carbon products, services, technologies and infrastructure,” the document said.
The Communiqué calls for greenhouse gas emission targets to be guided by science and to limit the global average temperature rise to less than 2C. This will mean that global emissions will have to start declining rapidly within the next decade and be reduced by 50% to 80% by 2050. The Communiqué is an initiative of the Price of Wales´s Corporate Leaders´ Group on Climate Change, run by the University of Cambridge Programme for Sustainability Leadership.
The SA companies that have signed the document are Absa, Anglo American, Envirosense, Hollard, Nedbank, Pick n Pay, Sanlam, Santam, Sappi, Spier, Vineyard Townhouse and Wasteman Group.
The liveeco team
