Warsaw, 18 November 2013 - Today at the Warsaw Climate Change Conference (COP 19), the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) released its new publication, “Beyond Business as Usual”, presenting Action2020’s societal target and initial set of business solutions aimed at addressing climate change.
Led by the WBCSD, its member companies and in partnership with the Stockholm Resilience Centre and the World Resources Institute, Action2020 is the WBCSD’s platform for action. Based on science, it sets the agenda for business action on sustainable development until 2020, and beyond. Central to Action2020 is a set of societal targets- ‘Societal Must-Haves’- related to climate change and other critical environmental and social areas.
Action2020’s Societal Must-Have for Climate Change states: “With the goal of limiting global temperature rise to 2°C above pre-industrial levels, the world must, by 2020, have energy, industry, agriculture and forestry systems that, simultaneously,are:
- Meeting societal development needs;
- Implementing the necessary structural transformation to ensure that cumulative net emissionsdo not exceed one trillion tonnes of carbon. Peaking global emissions by 2020 keeps this goal in a feasible range;
- Becoming resilient to expected changes in climate.
To reach this climate change societal ‘Must-Have’ by 2020 and beyond, a large group of WBCSD member companies have developed an initial set of impactful business solutions that are measurable, scalable, replicable, and beyond business as usual.
These business solutions include:
- Forests as carbon sinks;
- Carbon capture and storage;
- Electrifying cities towards zero emissions;
- Low-carbon electrification of remote areas;
- Building resilience across global interdependent supply chains.
Further business solutions to address Action2020’s climate change societal ‘Must-have’-- especially in the area of renewable energies and energy efficiency-- are in the works, and more WBCSD member companies are expected to develop these new solutions in the coming months and year ahead.The WBCSD will actively seek collaboration with other initiatives to create a broad business-led movement to scale up solutions.