For first time, chief
executives will join top Government officials
to share solutions, commitments and plans
towards climate action at COP, on the road
to a 2015 global climate agreement
Warsaw, 19 November 2013 - The United Nations
Global Compact, UN Framework Convention
on Climate Change secretariat and UN Environment
Programme today launched the inaugural Caring
for Climate Business Forum where, for the
first time, the private sector will join
with the public sector in the co-creation
of climate change solutions as an official
part of the Conference of Parties. CEOs
will showcase to diplomats, policymakers
and world leaders the contributions that
business and investors are making towards
climate action.
Held concurrently with
COP19/CMP9, the Business Forum will help
to bring greater scale to business innovation
on climate change, encourage Governments
to raise ambition on climate policies and
foster collaboration among business, investors,
Government, civil society and the UN. Through
direct engagement with COP19 talks, companies
will share solutions and commitments and
set concrete action plans and partnerships
in pursuit of effective and scalable solutions
on climate change.
"COP 19 is a pivotal
moment to both step up and showcase climate
action," said Christiana Figueres,
Executive Secretary of UNFCCC. "Businesses
must be heard, leveraged and invited to
develop scalable climate change solutions
to drive climate action. This can create
the political space for more ambition in
the UN climate process, which as part of
a virtuous cycle can in turn catalyze more
business action."
The Business Forum will
showcase some of the most innovative commitments
and solutions for climate change from businesses,
including plans by Ikea to use 100 percent
renewable energy by 2020, and a new global
framework by Dow to mitigate the footprint
of large-scale events and help to produce
the first carbon neutral Olympic Games.
World leaders will learn about actions taken
in markets across the globe - such as China,
where Caring for Climate has facilitated
commitments by companies across seven action
areas for combatting climate change and
reducing pollution and emissions.
"Environmental
change is accelerating and generating new
and emerging challenges but also opportunities
for business," said Achim Steiner,
Executive Director of UNEP and UN Under-Secretary-General.
"Companies that face up to these realities
are likely to be the ones that survive and
indeed thrive in a rapidly evolving world
where factors such as climate change and
dwindling availability of natural resources
will shape future patterns of profit and
loss while driving new and smarter markets."
"Demonstrations
of real-life climate-change solutions can
help to build precedents and public support
that are needed to move policymakers to
action. The Caring for Climate Business
Forum gives companies the critical opportunity
do so." said Georg Kell, UN Global
Compact Executive Director. "By facilitating
private-sector investment, setting a price
on carbon and bringing to scale climate
change solutions that work, the private
sector can prove that it plays a lead role
in influencing the global climate change
agenda."
Leveraging the themes
of innovation, ambition and collaboration,
the Business Forum will be opened by high-level
speakers including Christiana Figueres,
COP 19 President and Poland's Minister of
Environment Marcin Korolec, and President
and CEO of World Resources Institute Andrew
Steer. A dozed focused sessions on themes
related to the UNFCCC agenda and co-organized
with The Climate Group, CDP, UNEP's Finance
Initiative and WRI will cover mitigation
(i.e., bridging the emissions gap by 2020);
adaptation; capacity-building and technology-transfer;
and innovative financing - and cross-cutting
issues such as transparency and responsible
policy engagement.
New tools and resources
for companies launched at the Business Forum
include the Caring for Climate (C4C) Progress
Report 2013 which examines trends in participation
in C4C, emissions performance of companies
and progress made against the five commitments,
and a guide to help businesses engage responsibly
in climate policy. The Climate and Energy
Action Hub, an interactive platform for
companies to collectively provide technologies,
resources, services and business models
to scale up climate and energy efforts,
will present nearly 20 projects seeking
partners from the private and public spheres.
On 20 November, chief
executives and senior representatives of
Caring for Climate signatories will engage
in a high-level meeting with Government
representatives to distil the outcomes from
the first day, with participation by UN
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon; H.E. Jakaya
Mrisho Kikwete, President of the United
Republic of Tanzania; Achim Steiner; and
Christiana Figueres. Companies will put
forward key recommendations for Government
actions to help scale up and deepen the
quality of corporate climate leadership
globally. The Business Forum will conclude
with a report-back segment and a formal
announcement of new commitments to action.
Caring for Climate -
led by the UN Global Compact in partnership
with UNEP and UNFCCC - is the world's largest
voluntary business and climate initiative.
It helps to forge stronger alliances between
companies and Governments, speed up the
delivery of green solutions, scale up climate
finance, create jobs and deliver sustainable
energy systems on a massive scale. More
than 350 companies have signed on to advance
its mission.
To learn more about
the Caring for Climate Business Forum, held
in Warsaw at the Sofitel Warsaw Victoria
Hotel (19 November) and the National Stadium
(20 November), please visit www.c4cbusinessforum.org.
About the UN Global
Compact
Launched in 2000, the
United Nations Global Compact is both a
policy platform and a practical framework
for companies that are committed to sustainability
and responsible business practices. As a
multi-stakeholder leadership initiative,
it seeks to align business operations and
strategies with ten universally accepted
principles in the areas of human rights,
labour, environment and anti-corruption
and to catalyze actions in support of broader
UN goals. With more than 8,000 corporate
participants in 145 countries, it is the
world's largest voluntary corporate sustainability
initiative. www.unglobalcompact.org
About UNFCCC
With 195 Parties, the
United Nations Framework Convention on Climate
Change (UNFCCC) has near universal membership
and is the parent treaty of the 1997 Kyoto
Protocol. The Kyoto Protocol has been ratified
by 192 of the UNFCCC Parties. For the first
commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol,
37 States, consisting of highly industrialized
countries and countries undergoing the process
of transition to a market economy, have
legally binding emission limitation and
reduction commitments. In Doha in 2012,
the Conference of the Parties serving as
the meeting of the Parties to the Kyoto
Protocol adopted an amendment to the Kyoto
Protocol, which establishes the second commitment
period under the Protocol. The ultimate
objective of both treaties is to stabilize
greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere
at a level that will prevent dangerous human
interference with the climate system. www.unfccc.int
About United Nations
Environment Programme
The United Nations Environment
Programme (UNEP), established in 1972, is
the voice for the environment within the
United Nations system. UNEP acts as a catalyst,
advocate, educator and facilitator to promote
the wise use and sustainable development
of the global environment. To accomplish
this, UNEP works with a wide range of partners,
including United Nations entities, international
organizations, national governments, non-governmental
organizations, the private sector and civil
society. www.unep.org
+ More
Climate Action Brings
Big Benefits to Human Health Mon, Nov 4,
2013
WASHINGTON, November
3, 2013- Fast action to cut common pollutants
like soot - also known as black carbon -
and methane will not only slow global warming,
but save millions of lives.
Reductions of these
so-called short-lived climate pollutants
(SLCPs) would slow rapid melting in the
Arctic and in mountain regions with glaciers,
like the Himalayas. It would also bring
multiple health, crop and ecosystem benefits,
and decrease risks to development from flooding
and water shortages says a new scientific
study released today.
“The health of people
around the world will improve greatly if
we reduce emissions of black carbon and
methane. Limiting these emissions also will
be an important contributor to the fight
against climate change," said Jim Yong
Kim, President of the World Bank Group.“The
damage from indoor cooking smoke alone is
horrendous - every year, 4 million people
die from exposure to the smoke. With cleaner
air, cities will become more productive,
food production will increase and children
will be healthier.”
On Thin Ice: How Cutting
Pollution can Slow Warming and Save Livesis
about how climate change is affecting the
cryosphere - those snow-capped mountain
ranges, brilliant glaciers and vast permafrost
regions on which all of us depend.
It warns that current
warming in the cryosphere could have dire
human consequences from resulting sea level
rise, increased water stress and more extreme
weather. For example, the release of large
CO2 and methane stores as a result of melting
permafrost could contribute up to 30% more
carbon to the atmosphere by the end of the
century.
“The cryosphere is changing
fast as a result of climate change, it is
changing today, and those changes bring
increased risk to ecosystems and human societies,”
says Pam Pearson, Director of the International
Cryosphere Climate Initiative, who produced
the report with the World Bank. “If warming
continues unabated, the risks from continuing
sea level rise, flooding and water resource
disruption rise dramatically. This report
makes clear that slowing cryosphere warming
is an issue of global concern. Also, that
action to cut SLCPs must take place in concert
with ambitious efforts to cut long-lived
greenhouse gases."
The report also lays
out immediate measures we can take to slow
the ice melt including reducing the black
carbon emissions from diesel-fueled vehicles
and solid fuel cooking fires that lowers
the reflectivity of snow and ice, leading
to greater melting.
Such actions would also
provide important health, agriculture and
other development benefits. According to
the report, if more clean cook-stoves -
stoves that use less or cleaner fuel - would
be used it could save one million lives.
In addition, a 50-percent drop in open field
and forest burning could result in 190,000
fewer deaths every year, many of them in
Europe and Central Asia.
Reductions in emissions
from diesel transport and equipment, meanwhile,
could result in more than 16 million tons
of additional yield in crops such as rice,
soy and wheat, especially in Southeast Asia;
and also avert 340,000 premature deaths.
Emissions of methane,
as well as nitrogen oxide from diesel use,
causes higher levels of ozone which results
in lower growth of food crops, and thus
a decrease in crop yields.
"This report is
an important contribution to the World Bank's
work on development and climate,” said Rachel
Kyte, World Bank Vice President for Sustainable
Development. “It clearly identifies the
risks that black carbon and methane pose
to the poorest and most vulnerable, as well
as the climate benefits of early, scalable
action irrespective of global agreements.
Critically, it also provides solutions for
clean growth, and opportunities to help
meet World Bank Group goals of ending extreme
poverty by 2030 and boosting shared prosperity.”
The World Bank is taking
steps to ensure more of its projects and
activities reduce short-lived climate pollutants.
A recent analysis for the G8 reveals that
from 2007 to 2012, 7.7 percent of World
Bank commitments in energy, transport, roads,
agriculture, forestry, and urban waste and
wastewater - approximately US$ 18 billion
-have an impact on the amount of climate
pollutants which are released into the atmosphere.
However, reducing emissions will not be
easy as very real barriers to implementation
exist around cost, behavior and technology.
“Our aim is to work
with countries to transform investments
that have an impact on pollutants like black
carbon into investments that reduce emissions
where ever possible,”said Kyte.
For copies of the “On
Thin Ice” report go to: www.worldbank.org/climatechange
This report builds on
methods used in the UNEP/WMO Integrated
Assessment of Black Carbon and Tropospheric
Ozone (2011) which is supported by the UNEP
hosted Climate and Clean Air Coalition (CCAC)
to Reduce Short-lived Climate Pollutants;
both the World Bank and ICCI are partners
in the CCAC.
