To the G7 Heads of State and Governments
Businesses are implementing the Paris Agreement. By aligning with the Paris Agreement, companies are growing their bottom line, reducing and stabilizing costs, driving innovation, uncovering new markets, and future-proofing their business strategies.
However, the first round of Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), even if fully implemented, will not deliver the goals of the Paris Agreement, so businesses and governments must both continue to increase their ambition and accelerate climate action. Businesses look to governments for policy signals that provide the certainty needed to inform strategic planning and drive low greenhouse gas (GHG) capital investment and innovation. Only by closing this ambition gap can we secure sustainable economic growth and prosperity for all.
We therefore call on global leaders to close the gap with the Paris Agreement’s goals through the following actions:
- Reaffirm their strong commitment to the swift and effective implementation of the Paris Agreement
- Include more ambitious targets and measures in 2020 NDC communications, and clearly articulate them in domestic climate policies, to bring collective ambition ever closer to the Paris Agreement goals
- Come forward with comprehensive and ambitious long-term, low-GHG development strategies as soon as possible, to guide future NDCs and national climate policy
- Build resilience to climate impacts, in particular among the most vulnerable communities
- Support a just transition to a net-zero emissions global economy
And we call on global leaders to further accelerate business ambition through the following actions:
- Accelerate the transition to low carbon energy systems, specifically to boost corporate renewable energy sourcing by setting ambitious, long-term and credible national renewable energy targets and development plans; enabling direct participation in electricity markets for corporate buyers; and establishing sound and transparent tracking systems for renewable energy
- Accelerate the transition to electric vehicles through end dates for the sale of internal combustion engine passenger vehicles; increasingly stringent emissions standards; low emission zones in cities; fiscal measures reducing the total cost of ownership; and support for charging infrastructure development
- Set strong carbon pricing signals consistent with the Carbon Pricing Leadership Coalition’s High Level Commission on Carbon Prices, and the 2018 Carbon Pricing Corridors analysis
- Phase out fossil fuel subsidies as soon as possible
- Phase out existing traditional coal power, and put a moratorium on any new traditional coal power stations without operational carbon capture and storage
- Ratify the Kigali Amendment to the Montreal Protocol, and implement policies phasing out hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) and addressing other short-lived climate pollutants
- Publicly support the implementation of the Financial Stability Board’s Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures recommendations through regulation, and the extension of the Task Force’s term
We stand ready to work with governments in implementing these actions.
We Mean Business (WMB) is a coalition of nonprofit organizations working with the world’s most influential businesses to take action on climate change. Together we catalyze business leadership to drive policy ambition and accelerate the transition to a low-carbon economy.
WMB is fully committed to the implementation of the Paris Agreement. Over 700 leading businesses around the world are taking action through the coalition’s Take Action campaign. Collectively the greenhouse gas emissions of these companies are equivalent to the total annual emissions of India, and their collective market capitalization of over $16.7 trillion is more than 20% of the entire global economy.
Over 130 companies have committed to source 100% renewable electricity across their global operations, others to rapidly electrify their vehicle fleets. More than 400 companies have committed to or have set science-based emission reduction targets in line with the Paris Agreement, and over 860 more have said they will do so in the next two years.
Building an economy with net-zero global GHG emissions in the second half of this century, as the Paris Agreement envisions, will require significant technological, social and economic transformations. We must ensure these transformations bring about a just transition, where jobs are green and decent, inequality is severely reduced and communities are thriving and resilient.
Yours faithfully, the We Mean Business coalition
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