Week of 18 May 2020
As countries work on economic aid and recovery packages in response to COVID-19, 150 CEOs and business leaders (representing over 5 million employees and a market capitalisation of over $2.4 trillion) call on governments to prioritize a faster and fairer transition from a grey to a green economy, grounded in bold climate action
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:
- Implementing ambitious science-based targets to set the world on a 1.5°C trajectory
- Prioritizing green jobs and sustainable growth, protecting nature and people, and delivering on the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda and the 2015 Paris Agreement
- 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.”