The COP21 climate talks are less than a week away and we’re seeing a flurry of low-carbon commitments from governments and industry as both groups gear up for Paris.
US federal agencies will cut emissions to 41.8 percent below 2008 levels by 2025. The White House made the commitment on Monday and said the cuts will span the government’s 360,000 buildings, 650,000 vehicles and its supply chain, Reuters reports.
We Mean Business, a coalition of organizations such as CDP and Ceres working with investors and businesses including Ikea, Starbucks, Nike, HP and Unilever, has set out eight proposals that the business community is asking governments to include in a global climate agreement. The policy proposals include: eliminating subsidies that incentivize high-carbon energy; enacting carbon pricing; ending deforestation; putting in place energy efficiency standards, and ; supporting for scale-up of renewable energy.
CEOs of Coca-Cola, The Hain Celestial Group, Hershey’s and PepsiCo have joined with 10 of their peers in signing a joint letter to US and world leaders urging a “robust” climate deal. The letter, coordinated by Ceres, was originally released on Oct. 1. Original signatories include the CEOs of Mars Incorporated, General Mills, Unilever, Kellogg Company, Nestlé USA, New Belgium Brewing, Ben & Jerry’s, Clif Bar, Stonyfield Farm and Dannon USA.
Also this week CEOs from 78 global companies — including PepsiCo, Dow Chemical, Nestlé, Unilever, and Accenture — are urging governments to work with them to co-design climate solutions ahead of COP21.
And on Sunday, the Canadian province of Alberta has announced a climate plan that includes an economy-wide carbon tax, sets emissions limits for the oil sands and phases out coal-generated electricity.
