A new survey has shown that major companies are planning to decarbonizes half of their product and services to curb climate change. Survey conducted by Science based Targets (SBTi) concluded that 52 percent executive that participated in survey have shown a positive response to make low carbon products by 2028.
Survey showed that 19 percent of the companies will be 100 percent low carbon within a decade. The 185 responding companies are based in 37 countries, including Dutch telecom company KPN, retailer Lidl Belgium, Japanese building materials manufacturer LIXIL Group, American logistics real estate company prologis and Dutch technology giant Royal Philips.
“It is clear that many corporates are taking a lead by adopting science-based targets to create low carbon products and services and reduce their emissions. The fact that one in five executives with science-based targets expect 100% of their products and services to be low carbon within a decade is remarkable – and suggests a tipping point is in reach,” said Dexter Galvin, Global Director of Corporations & Supply Chains at CDP, one of the Science-Based Targets initiative partners.
The companies are also contributing to the landmark Paris Climate change accord where the global temperature is to keep well below 2OC.
When asked to select up to three factors from a list, 65% of respondents chose environmental factors as one of the biggest trends affecting business growth in the next five years, second only to technological change (88%) and ahead of economic policy (59%).
Moreover, in total, only 79% of the companies surveyed said brand reputation is one of the biggest benefits of setting science-based targets, while 63% said the commitment helps to drive innovation.
Nearly a third (29%) claimed that science-based targets deliver bottom line savings to their business.
Over 420 major corporations have already set, or committed to set, a science-based target. They span 38 countries and represent over 880 megatonnes in annual greenhouse gas emissions, equivalent to the annual CO2 emissions from 218 coal-fired power plants.
This year, Anand Mahindra, Chairman of the Mahindra Group, has called on companies worldwide to commit to the Science Based Targets initiative ahead of the Global Climate Action Summit hosted in California in September 2018. The summit will be co-chaired by the UN’s top climate change official, Patricia Espinosa.
Other partners in the initiative include the United Nations Global Compact (UN Global Compact), World Resources Institute (WRI) and the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF).
