Climate Leadership Coalition’s CEO Jouni Keronen made a keynote presentation on 17 February 2022 after former US Vice President and Nobel Laureate Al Gore’s opening speech in a climate conference on business models and practices aligned with Paris Agreement objectives.
The virtual Businesses Fit for 1.5C conference was organised by the European branch of The Climate Reality Project, a non-profit organisation involved in education and advocacy related to climate change, founded and chaired by Al Gore.
“The shift toward a cleaner, more sustainable future – the Sustainability Revolution – is happening at the scale of the Industrial Revolution, with the speed of the Digital Revolution. As a result, the opportunity for businesses to lead this transition is massive. But I’ll be candid with you. While many businesses have been ambitious about setting climate goals, we have yet to see the necessary follow-through. Fewer than 25 per cent of the world’s public companies are on track to achieve their emissions reduction goals. If we are to avoid the most catastrophic impacts of the climate crisis, we must limit global temperature rise to 1.5°C. And to do that, we must cut global emissions in half by 2030. The science is clear: we have no time left to waste,” said Al Gore in his opening speech.
“There are significant gaps in emissions reductions, the development of carbon sinks and in the volume of climate investments. And if we do not fix the key parameters like carbon price, I do not see how we could achieve the 1.5C objective. That is why we, together with our Nordic partners Haga Initiative and Skift Business Climate Leaders, initiated the Call on Carbon initiative that has already by now achieved wide business support,” said Jouni Keronen, CEO of CLC.
The climate conference speakers shared the opinion that businesses have a key role to play in resetting our economy after the Covid-19 pandemic. Businesses’ climate ambitions are led by the market, economic benefits, and more often by visionary leaders. Jouni Keronen cited Neste, SSAB, Spinnova, Solar Foods and K Group as examples of visionary leaders.
“Since its foundation in 2014, CLC has stated that a fundamental transition to a sustainable world can be economically beneficial, viable and financeable. Protecting the climate can, and should, be an economic stimulus and good business in which early movers can create profitable business,” said Jouni Keronen.
You can watch the presentations of the Businesses Fit for 1.5C conference via this link.
CLC’s 89 organisational members employ 530,000 people globally. CLC’s corporate members represent almost 70 per cent of the market cap of OMX Helsinki. CLC’s members believe that transitioning society towards a sustainable economy and consumption habits is not only possible but also economically viable.
More information: Jouni Keronen, CEO, Climate Leadership Coalition, jouni.keronen@clc.fi +358 50 453 4881 and Kari Mokko, Development Director, Climate Leadership Coalition, kari.mokko@clc.fi, +358 40 751 3281.
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