10 Years in…
María Mendiluce
This year marks a decade since the founding of We Mean Business Coalition. In our latest Annual Report, we retrace the Coalition’s milestones over the past ten years, as well as the progress we’ve made over the past twelve months. All of it thanks to our funders, partners and the businesses large and small taking action through Coalition campaigns and initiatives. Download our Annual Report now.
As well as marking our achievements as a community, I want to use this moment to reflect on what we have learned and where we go next.
I recently joined our Board Chair Sir Ian Cheshire and CEO of Ingka Group, Jesper Brodin, in recording the first in a special series of podcasts. These in-depth discussions on the key issues facing corporate climate leaders today are produced in collaboration with the Financial Times, Sustainable Views. Listen here for free.
As I outline in the podcast, there are lots of reasons to feel optimistic. Over 16,000 companies have committed to science-based targets, with 5 small businesses a day signing up to the SME Climate Hub. Renewables are the fastest growing source of energy, with capacity increasing by 50% last year to 510GW.
But I remain cautious, because emissions continue to rise.
While the last 10 years were about setting ambition and understanding the corporate action needed, the next 10 years will be about removing barriers to implementation. The will is there, but the technology availability, consumers and policy have often not caught up.
We need to accelerate electrification, upgrade regulations and policies for clean solutions that replace fossil fuels, and develop infrastructure to scale battery storage and green hydrogen deployment. There will be trade-offs, and trial and error involved, which need to be acknowledged by the climate community with a holistic perspective, maturity and trust. Read more about this in my latest piece for Forbes.
10 years into our history, it is clearer than ever that there is no credible route to achieving the goals of the Paris Agreement without the leadership, innovation and financial resources of business.
It is also clear that we can only achieve our goals through collaboration – and so I’m excited to be part of Mission 2025, a new coalition of non-state actors who have come together to ratchet ambition and implementation.
Together, we can be an unstoppable force.