150 CEOs and leaders (representing over $2.4 trillion) call on governments to prioritize a faster and fairer transition

Over 150 CEOs and senior leaders (including from Adobe, Carlsberg Group, Coca-Cola European Partners, Colgate-Palmolive, EDF, Electrolux, Firmenich, JLL, H&M, Mars, Nestlé, Orange, Pernod Ricard, Salesforce, Sky, Telefónica, The Co-op, Unilever and Vodafone) have issued a statement for governments. This statement, convened through the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi), calls on governments to tackle both human health and planetary health.

Some excerpts from the statement:

• “As countries work on economic aid and recovery packages in response to COVID-19, and as they prepare to submit enhanced national climate plans under the Paris Agreement, we are calling on Governments to reimagine a better future grounded in bold climate action.”
• “We are now urging Governments to prioritize a faster and fairer transition from a grey to a green economy by aligning policies and recovery plans with the latest climate science.”
• “To ensure we recover better, we are calling on Governments and policy-makers to match our ambitions in their recovery efforts aligned with reaching net-zero emissions well before 2050.”

To “recover better from COVID-19”, companies commit to continue:

1. Implementing ambitious science-based targets to set the world on a 1.5°C trajectory
2. Prioritizing green jobs and sustainable growth, protecting nature and people, and delivering on the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda and the 2015 Paris Agreement
3. Working with Governments and scaling up the movement

“Governments have a critical role to play by aligning policies and recovery plans with the latest climate science, but they cannot drive a systemic socio-economic transformation alone. To address the interconnected crises we face, we must work together as an international community to deliver on the Sustainable Development Goals and the Paris Agreement.”                      

Lila Karbassi, Chief of Programmes at the UN Global Compact and SBTi board member, Business giants call for science-based green economic recovery (Euractiv, 19 May 2020)

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