Investor and Company Leaders Welcome COP 24 Progress

U.S. Investor and business community leaders welcomed the results of the international climate talks, known as COP 24, particularly the adoption by world leaders of a shared “rulebook” for implementation of the Paris Agreement. These new rules will help “create a stronger foundation for countries to implement the historic accord,” said Ceres CEO and President Mindy Lubber.

Investors and businesses will benefit from the new rules as they will “improve transparency and allow for consistent reporting and monitoring for greenhouse gas emissions reductions, enabling stepped-up climate ambition” she added.

Lubber said: 

The urgency to tackle the world’s greatest sustainability and climate challenges has never been greater. That urgency was on full display at COP 24, especially on the heels of a sobering report from Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change that called for dramatically increasing the pace and scale of greenhouse gas emission reductions. 

The investor and business community is acutely aware of the economic imperative of climate action. That’s why a record number of investors — 415 investors with $32 trillion in assets under management — called on governments last week to not only scale up ambition to achieve the goals of the Paris Agreement, but to also put a price on carbon and phase out thermal coal power.
  
And, at the U.S. Climate Action Center at COP24, We Are Still In leaders highlighted the 500 companies that have already committed to science-based targets to reduce emissions, and the hundreds of other companies that have already committed to power their operations with 100 percent renewable energy.

It is clear that the transition to a low-carbon economy is well underway and momentum is building. But, we know there is much more work to be done, and government and private sector leaders will need to step up climate action by 2020 in order to achieve the Paris Agreement’s goals of limiting warming to well below 2-degrees Celsius and pursuing efforts to limit warming to 1.5-degrees Celsius.

Ceres and its network members are more committed than ever before to ensuring that the U.S. is on track to meet and ratchet up the ambition of its goals under the Paris Agreement. The next year will be critical for leadership that accelerates climate action and strengthens policies both at home and abroad. 

Ceres is a sustainability nonprofit organization working with the most influential investors and companies to build leadership and drive solutions throughout the economy.