A number of major businesses of the Prince of Wales’ Corporate Leaders Group (CLG) have said that the international community must start to put 2050 climate strategies into place now if the world is to meet more pressing aims.
The group, which includes sustainability chiefs from household names such as Unilever, Tesco and Sky, spoke at a press briefing timed to coincide with the COP22 climate conference in Marrakech, Morocco.
It said that if the world’s nations to have submitted nationally determined contributions (NDCs) drawn up at last year’s historic COP21 in Paris are to meet them, they must start to develop plans with 2050 already in mind.
This, the group has said, would enable businesses more security to develop their own plans.
“Business needs a long-term pathway to fully embrace the opportunities offered by a low carbon world… Corporate leaders are ready to work closely with policymakers to help develop 2050 climate strategies. What we need from governments are clear long-term policy frameworks to accelerate the delivery of our commitments,” said Thomas Lingard, climate advocacy and sustainability strategy director at Unilever.
The CLG has also released a new report in collaboration with University of Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership and climate action group We Mean Business, detailing how it foresees longer-term commitments taking shape.
The report argues that government and business should have a “complementary relationship” in relation to climate change policy, urging for a predictable policy environment within which businesses can make long-term investments and “help reinforce government’s long-term strategy”.
Eliot Whittington, deputy director of The CLG, said that flexible and comprehensive long-term plans would enable countries the chance to “create an investment prospectus” that would “unleach even more business energy behind a zero carbon transition”.
“They should also be flexible enough to enable, support and respond to innovation without trying to predict the future. Finally, to be credible with business, long-term plans need broad political support and should be developed through transparent and accountable processes,” he added.
