by admin | May 25, 2021 | Business Summit, Events, World
By Vishal Gulati,
San Francisco : Top UN officials welcomed the outcomes of the Global Climate Action Summit that concluded here on Friday, showcasing a surge of climate action and commitments from regions, cities, businesses, investors and civil society; and calling on governments everywhere to step up their efforts to tackle climate change.
Leaders from all sectors of society gathered at the event to demonstrate how they are taking ambition to the next level with a wave of fresh and brave climate action announcements that, if implemented, will generate over 65 million new, low-carbon jobs by 2030.
“We are experiencing huge economic losses due to climate change,” said UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.
“But the Global Climate Action Summit has brought together actors demonstrating the vast opportunity afforded by climate action. They are betting on green because they understand this is the path to prosperity and peace on a healthy planet.”
This momentum culminated in a landmark Call to Action, which was presented to UN’s Envoy on Youth Jayathma Wickramanayake in a symbolic gesture to illustrate that it is future generations who will be most affected by the decisions of the current generation to build a better, more resilient world.
Accepting the Summit’s Call to Action on behalf of the United Nations, UN Climate Change Executive Secretary Patricia Espinosa said: “This Summit and its Call to Action make an important contribution towards achieving our collective goal: to keep global temperatures to 1.5 degrees Celsius in line with the Paris Agreement.”
“It will encourage governments worldwide to step up their actions, demonstrating the vital role that states and regions, cities, companies, investors, and civil society are playing to tackle climate change.”
The event took place against a background of accelerating impacts of climate change, including Super Typhoon Mangkhut expected to make landfall on Saturday and Hurricane Florence, which continues to devastate communities on the east coast of the US.
The UN Environment highlighted the vital role of non-party stakeholders in propelling the global fight against climate change forward, in an excerpt of their Emissions Gap Report launched at the Summit.
“Climate change is undoubtedly the defining issue of our time, and working together across nations, organizations and communities is the only way that we can tackle this enormous task and seize the huge opportunities,” said head of UN Environment Erik Solheim.
“We have seen here over the past few days the inspiring amount of work that is already being undertaken by communities around the world to address these issues. If we manage to put our environment first, we can come out on the other end of this formidable challenge and achieve our common goal, a sustainable world for all.”
Espinosa’s speech at the closing ceremony underscored the need for all actors to embrace ‘inclusive multilateralism’, strongly mirroring the UN Secretary-General’s remarks on Monday in New York, where he called on leaders to adopt a sense of urgency to deliver a decisive response to climate change.
This spirit of collaboration is in keeping with the history of San Francisco, which witnessed the signing of the UN Charter in 1945, first establishing a rules-based international order that championed multilateralism over self-interest, and endorsed progress not through conflict, but through all people working together.
Over the last three days, Californian Governor Jerry Brown has played host to an official programme of events that generated more than 500 commitments.
Participants used these events to unveil new commitments under five challenge areas — healthy energy systems, inclusive economic growth, sustainable communities, land and ocean stewardship, and transformative climate investments — captured in the Summit’s final communique and registered on UN’s revamped Climate Action Portal — aimed to send a strong signal to governments to step up action by 2020, when global emissions need to peak and then swiftly decline.
(Vishal Gulati is in San Francisco at the invitation of the Climate Trends to cover the Global Climate Action Summit (GCAS). He can be contacted at vishal.g@ians.in)
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Business, Business Summit, Events, Interviews, Large Enterprise
Anand Mahindra
By Vishal Gulati,
San Francisco : India is already playing a leading role in lowering global emissions. The country’s efforts in mainstreaming renewable energy and energy efficiency are remarkable. These, and its ambition in the electric mobility space, are admired across the globe, says Mahindra Group Executive Chairman Anand Mahindra.
For him, climate change needs to be addressed and he has called on businesses worldwide to commit to science-based targets (SBTs), which aimed to reduce emissions as underpinned by the historic 2015 Paris Climate Change Agreement, the first-ever legally binding treaty adopted by 197 countries that came in force on November 4, 2016.
“India’s social programmes like Ujala (bio-mass to LPG) and Swachh Bharat are very innovative and effective ways of addressing the issues of both planet and people on a large scale where they can actually create a positive impact,” Mahindra told IANS in an interview here.
He’s hereto co-chair the Global Climate Action Summit (GCAS) that aims to encourage all stakeholders to raise their ambition with many new possibilities emerging out of the discussions.
A firm believer that climate change needs to be addressed, he was categorically clear in saying that no nation can afford to ignore this.
“But as I said earlier, everyone needs to do more. There is a lot that developed countries are doing and we look forward to the steps they take as these actions help the global effort, due to advances in technology that others can learn from and emulate.”
On the status on the adoption of science-based climate targets, Mahindra said nearly three years on from Paris, the race is on to meet the target of holding global temperature rise to under two degrees Celsius, helping avoid the worst effects of climate change by achieving peak greenhouse gas emissions by 2020.
“At this summit, new evidence will be presented to demonstrate that companies around the world, and in some of the highest-emitting industries, are taking action to make the transition to the low-carbon business models of the future.”
Currently, 20 Mahindra Group companies have signed up for the science-based climate targets, with Mahindra Sanyo Special Steels being the first steel company in the world to get its targets approved.
This covers more than 90 per cent of the Group’s emissions and other Group companies are in the process of signing up for these targets, he said.
Mahindra sees business value in adopting these targets that he announced to commit at the World Economic Forum in January this year.
“We have already seen remarkable value in reducing emissions through the EP100 programme which aims to double energy productivity in our main businesses — auto, farm equipment and holiday resorts. Science-based targets are a way of ensuring that ambition is stepped up and action is aligned to the target set by the Paris Agreement.”
“The need for sustainability in business is creating a tectonic shift of mindset, as dramatic as moving from smoke signals to Skype. The scale involved in moving from combustion engines to electric, from conventional to alternative energy, opens up a new world of business possibilities.”
He said the creation of new technologies and leveraging them to create new businesses is a huge opportunity for the future.
This includes retro-fitting homes, buildings, and factories, to make them more energy efficient; and manufacturing literally billions of energy efficient appliances for lighting, heating, cooking, cooling, and washing for every home.
“We are talking about massive scale once consumers change their lifestyle. The potential investment in wind and solar energy alone, over the next two decades, is six trillion dollars.
“Beside the business case for sustainability, we as a company have discovered that everything we have done to reduce greenhouse gas emissions has given us a financial return.”
An optimistic Mahindra said the GCAS would encourage all stakeholders to raise their ambition with many new possibilities emerging out of the discussions.
The commitments made in the lead-up to GCAS have already created momentum and GCAS will help carry this through.
As a platform to address the challenge of climate change, the GCAS to my mind is already a success.
“For me, the work toward GCAS began at Davos when we issued the SBT (science-based targets) challenge to other global corporations. The challenge has gained huge momentum and more than 470 companies have already signed up for these SBTs.
“I am sure that the conversations at GCAS will sustain and even increase the momentum that has been created. We have Indian steel and cement companies that have come forward to sign onto these SBTs. These sectors are known to be hard-to-abate, yet Indian companies have shown vision and ambition in taking this action. These point toward strong signs of success for GCAS already,” he said.
The three-day climate action summit, an initiative by California Governor Jerry Brown, began here on Wednesday amidst the presence of 4,000-plus business leaders, investors, citizens and government representatives from all over the world, coming together with the united resolve to “take ambition to the next level”.
(Vishal Gulati is in San Francisco at the invitation of the Climate Trends to cover the Global Climate Action Summit (GCAS). He can be contacted at vishal.g@ians.in )
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Business, Business Summit, Corporate, Corporate Buzz, Events, SMEs
San Francisco : In the first in a series of corporate announcements ahead of the Global Climate Action Summit here, one of the world’s largest electronics and entertainment companies Sony Corporation on Monday announced to join RE100.
RE100 is a global corporate leadership initiative led by The Climate Group in partnership with CDP, bringing together more than 140 multinationals committed to 100 per cent renewable power.
RE100 members are creating demand for 182.4 TWh of renewable energy per year — more than enough to power a medium sized country, such as Thailand or Poland.
Their operations span a wide range of geographies and sectors, highlighting diverse business action in a pivotal year for clean energy leadership.
Sony Corporation, with consolidated sales of $77 billion (FY2017), commits to sourcing 100 per cent renewable electricity for its global operations, spanning Europe, North America and Asia.
McKinsey and Company, the first management consultancy to globally step up and join RE100, and Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) also joined RE100, commit to source 100 per cent renewable electricity.
Further corporate leadership announcements on clean energy like these are expected this week as leaders from business, states, regions and cities come together in San Francisco for the Global Climate Action Summit (GCAS) from Wednesday to Friday.
“By stepping up and joining RE100 these leading companies are saying loud and clear that 100 per cent renewables are the solution — they reduce business risk and drive down greenhouse gas emissions,” The Climate Group CEO Helen Clarkson said in a statement.
“By putting renewables at the heart of their business strategies, RE100 members are sending the demand signals needed for national governments to increase their own ambitions on clean energy.”
California Governor and Global Climate Action Summit Co-Chair Jerry Brown said: “The Global Climate Action Summit is a call to action and these companies, with their bold commitment to clean energy, are setting the pace.”
—IANS
