78 Ceos Send Letter Of Support For New Climate Pact

When we look at the outcomes of the 18th Annual Global CEO Survey, which was announced by PwC, synchronized with the opening of the World Economic Forum in Davos earlier this year, we cannot see climate change among the issues that CEOs cared about the most.

In the interviews conducted with 1,300 CEOs from around the world, only 6 percent of them listed climate change as a primary problem.

Overall, the topics prioritized by CEOs were over-regulations, geopolitical uncertainties, taxes, cyber threats and customer behavior. It was apparent that for CEOs, climate change and its negative impacts were not such a big concern; they seemed to be more preoccupied with short-term problems and so were not able to acknowledge the long-term ones.

The interesting part was that most of the CEOs who participated in the survey voiced an expectation of a more competitive and effective taxation system from their governments, rather than efforts to fight global warming. It remains to be seen whether or not we should be hopeful to see a change in priorities in this regard from the CEOs, who are running companies worth billions of dollars and which are quite possibly the causes of climate change due to the scale and type of their production. After all, the business world has started to realize that a sustainable economy and life are not possible without natural resources and their protection, even though they still have a long and hard journey ahead.

As you may already know, during the UN Climate Change Conference (COP21) which is scheduled to take place in Paris on Nov. 30, the governments of 196 countries are anticipated to sign a new climate change agreement that will determine the world's future. Now, ahead of this summit, 78 CEOs, including those of multinational corporations such as Accenture, Akzo Nobel, Allianz, Deutsche Telekom, Henkel, HSBC, ING, Microsoft, Nestle, Pepsi, Siemens, Swiss Reinsurance and Unilever, released an open letter stating that they will support the governments towards a new climate change pact that is likely to be agreed on.

CEOs from 78 large companies based in Brazil, China, the US, India and European countries have openly offered their support for a comprehensive global climate agreement to be approved by their governments. These companies are spanning over 20 various sectors and more than 150 countries, with annual incomes of around $2.13 trillion in total; and their CEOs think that “hastening the shift to a low-carbon economy in an economically sustainable manner will generate growth and jobs in both the developing and developed world.” Out of the 78 signatories of the letter, which states, “We stand ready to work together with the international community to help deliver practical climate solutions,” 21 of them are CEOs at companies from BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) and developing countries. In their letter, the CEOs made these commitments on behalf of their companies:

-- Collaborating in supply chains and at sectoral levels in order to reduce environmental and carbon footprints
-- Acting as ambassadors for climate action, focusing on solutions and economic opportunities
-- Actively managing climate risks and incorporating them in decision making -- not least to realize growth opportunities

The CEOs also listed the key points that they defend:

-- Explicit or implicit pricing on carbon achieved via market mechanisms or coherent legislative measures according to national preferences, which will trigger low-carbon investment and transform current emission patterns at a significant scale
-- Developing and scaling up alternative and renewable energy sources, promoting energy efficiency and ending deforestation
-- Assessments of resilience to climate risks and call for new financial instruments to stimulate alternative energy and efficiency projects as well as green bonds.
-- Encouraging governments to set science-based global and national targets for the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions and the development of alternative energy sources.

Probably the most significant part of this letter is that the delaying to take action on climate change is not an option and such a delay would cost very much, meaning serious negative impacts on economic growth. The CEOs warn political leaders and decision-makers that they should be consistent in the process of making policies and not make any mistakes. We will wait and see whether their warning will be heeded.

Pelin Cengiz (Cihan/Today's Zaman)