More than 600 businesses from across the world have called upon the G20 bloc, which includes some of the world’s biggest economies such as India, the US and China, through an open letter appealing to the nations to halve the carbon emissions by 2030 and deliver on their commitment to climate conservation on Thursday, September 30.
Ahead of the G20 summit scheduled to be held on October 30 and 31, and the Cop26 climate talks which will begin on October 31 and run for two weeks, the leaders of some of the world’s leading corporations including energy companies such as Iberdrola, Acciona and Enel, as well as blue chips such as Unilever, Netflix, Volvo Cars and Natura & Co made a combined call for governments to deepen their involvement in solving the climate crisis and implement policies for the same.
15 Indian signatories to hail the open letter include Intelliace Solutions Private Limited, Reliance Industries Limited, Mahindra Group, Wipro Ltd, Tech Mahindra, Godrej and Boyce Mfg. Co. Ltd., Dalmia Cement (Bharat) Limited, ReNew Power Private Limited, Valency International. Mindspace Business Parks REIT, acting through its Manager, K Raheja Corp Investment Managers LLP, Chalet Hotels Limited, Banka BioLoo Limited, Convention Jurist Law Chamber, Rasoi Group and Tradeananta International.
“Our businesses recognize the benefits of climate action…The right policy decisions taken today can drive further investments and spur business decisions in favour of climate solutions across G20 countries,” the joint statement released by the companies said.
The letter addressed to the world leaders are urging the world’s biggest economies to follow through with their existing commitment to investing $100 billion in climate finance annually for developing countries, to end fossil fuel subsidies by 2025 and to end support for coal-based energy.
“It’s essential that governments take confidence from this letter – the biggest and most ambitious call for policy action from business that we’ve seen – and step up their climate action plans,” said María Mendiluce, chief executive of the We Mean Business Coalition, which co-ordinated the letter.
“Ahead of Cop26, countries should renew their national plans and turn them into concrete policies as outlined in this letter. Decisive government and business action can trigger a transition of our energy system to help build a resilient, carbon-free future,” she added.
Among the demands made by the business leaders, priority was given to putting an end to the new coal power development and financing plans for “phasing out coal-fired power generation by 2030 for advanced economies, and 2040 for other countries.”
The letter further urges the governments to increase the use of renewable energy across sectors, promote electric transportation and remove restrictions to corporate purchasing of 100 per cent renewable electricity to “enable companies to go quicker in their clean energy transition”. The letter will be open for companies to sign over the coming month.
