14 DAY TRIAL // Earlier today, The Prince of Wales's Corporate Leaders Group published a so-called Trillion Tonne Communiqué demanding that governments worldwide stop wasting time and implement measures intended to limit climate change and global warming by reducing greenhouse gas emissions without delay.
As surprising as this may seem, given its working agenda, multinational oil and gas company Shell is one of the signatories of this communiqué. Unilever, BT, EDF Energy, Adidas, ING, and Mars are also among the supporters of the Group's call to action.
On its website, The Prince of Wales's Corporate Leaders Group says that, all in all, its latest communiqué has until now been signed by 70 companies spanning over 5 continents. These businesses are all concerned about the effects of climate change and want governments to put a leash on this phenomenon.
Specifically, the signatories of the Group's communiqué want high officials to roll out and implement measures intended to cap cumulative greenhouse gas emissions at one trillion tonnes of carbon. This is because, according to evidence at hand, exceeding this threshold comes hand in hand with major negative effects.
“Governments must put policies in place to prevent the cumulative emission of more than a trillion tonnes of carbon, according to a statement from leading global businesses today,” The Prince of Wales's Corporate Leaders Group writes in a press release on the matter at hand.
“Failure to limit the stock of carbon in the atmosphere would risk increasingly serious climate impacts,” the Group argues, and there is no doubt that the companies that have until now signed the communiqué share this opinion.
Just in case world leaders are not very imaginative these days and, therefore, cannot come up with ways to limit greenhouse gas emissions by themselves, the Group and its supporters outline three major strategies that they think can help limit climate change.
These strategies boil down to achieving net zero emissions by the end of this century, coming up with a plan that will transform – hopefully for the better – the global energy sector, and figuring out a way to gradually phase out fossil fuels, especially coal.
Interestingly enough, the companies that have until now agreed to sign the communiqué, Shell included, believe that having world leaders push for limiting global greenhouse gas emissions has the potential to help businesses thrive and up their profits.
“We need to get beyond the concept that progressive climate change policy is bad for business: it can be a huge driver of innovation and create opportunities for growth and prosperity. Conversely, there isn't an organization that I know of which isn't already being impacted by climate change at some level.”
“Collective responsibility across governments, business and civic society is vital to ensure the world is on track for bet zero emissions before the end of the century,” Niall Dunne with BT said in a statement on the matter at hand.
This latest communiqué from The Prince of Wales's Corporate Leaders Group follows the release of a new report authored by specialists with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
The report in question says that climate change and global warming are already happening, and that things will only take a turn for the worse in the years to come unless measures to reduce environmental pollution are implemented without delay.