Big bosses join to beat climate change
Australia’s top corporate leaders have met to discuss tackling climate change in line with the Paris agreement.
Australia’s top corporate leaders have met to discuss tackling climate change in line with the Paris agreement as part of an environmental initiative backed by Richard Branson’s The B Team.
BHP chief executive Mike Henry, CBA’s Matt Comyn, Wesfarmers’ Rob Scott and Fortescue Metals Group’s Elizabeth Gaines dialled into a virtual meeting on Wednesday afternoon chaired by former Telstra head David Thodey.
The group, known as the Climate Leaders Coalition, will meet four times a year to share ideas over emissions reduction initiatives with work underway on five projects including energy technology initiatives.
Schneider Electric chief executive Jean Pascal-Tricoire addressed the meeting, followed by Ikea president Jesper Brodin, with the retail group a big investor in solar and wind and backer of renewable energy for its stores.
Corporates are accelerating moves to boost their commitment to the Paris Agreement, which aims to keep temperature rises well below 2 degrees above pre-industrial levels with an aim of limiting rises to 1.5 degrees.
“There was a really honest and genuine desire from members of the group, who are all on different levels of sophistication on their reduction emissions journey,” The B Team co-chair Lynette Mayne told The Australian. “Some are really advanced and some are just getting going. But that willingness to really help each other I haven’t seen before.”
The 22 members of the Coalition, which held its first meeting in August, include AGL Energy, Incitec Pivot, Rio Tinto, Santos, Worley, Microsoft and Viva Energy.
“By learning from each other and about how other sectors are approaching the emissions reduction challenge, we can create value through the development of shared climate solutions while driving economic recovery and growth,” BHP chief executive Mike Henry said.
The election of Joe Biden in the US has sparked a fresh debate over Australia’s climate change ambitions as more nations commit to a net zero emissions goal by 2050.
Scott Morrison says that target is achievable but has stopped short of committing to a hard energy target for the mid-century.
Former Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull says Mr Morrison will ultimately cave to international pressure and sign up to a net zero emissions target by 2050 after clinging too closely to Donald Trump‘s rhetoric.
Australian businesses are also increasingly under pressure on climate change as institutional investors such as Climate Action 100+ use their power to hold companies to account and improve their environmental performance.
The Climate Action 100+ initiative controls $US47 trillion ($64 trillion) in global funds and includes Australian investors AustralianSuper, AMP Capital, Cbus, IFM Investors, QSuper and BT Financial Group as members.
It targeted Australia’s biggest carbon polluters in September over their move to net zero emissions by the initiative as part of a move to benchmark companies over their commitment to tackle climate change.
Companies including Rio Tinto, BHP, AGL Energy, Woodside Petroleum, Woolworths and Qantas have been called on to commit to net zero emissions and detail strategies for how they will cut pollution, with the climate group to measure performance spread across 30 indicators.
The original target for Climate Action 100 when it was created in 2017 was for companies to reduce emissions in line with the Paris climate agreement, but that has since been overtaken both by some companies targeting more aggressive goals and a more pressing need for action.
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