With less than two weeks to go to the United Nations Conference on climate change (COP21) and the conclusion of the G20 last weekend, the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) continues to engage its network in more than 130 countries to advocate for a climate deal that engages business to fully address the climate challenge.
“ICC has underscored the need for the G20 to show leadership in engaging and collaborating with the private sector in an unprecedented way to tackle the climate challenge,” said Kersten-Karl Barth, chair of the ICC commission on the environment and energy.
As energy investment is expected to be the largest single area of overall infrastructure investment over the coming decades requiring $1-2 trillion per year over the coming decades, engagement of the private sector will be critical.
As the lead business representative to the UN climate talks, ICC supports an ambitious global agreement which works with business to speed emissions reductions and build climate resilience.
Invited by French Foreign Affairs Minister Laurent Fabius to speak on behalf of business and industry NGOs at the pre-COP meeting involving in Paris last Sunday, ICC Secretary General John Danilovich said: “Businesses are already innovating to develop the technological, organizational and financial solutions needed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and to adapt to changing climate patterns.
“But to scale up these solutions we need enhanced collaboration between business, and more importantly, between the public and private sectors.”
Norine Kennedy, USCIB’s vice president for strategic international engagement, energy and environment, attended the pre-COP and the Bonn negotiating sessions.
ICC national committees all over the world will also be promoting an ambitious global climate agreement which works with business with a series of events throughout the month of November:
- USCIB is organizing a COP21 Preparatory Meeting for U.S. Business on November 17 in Washington D.C.
- Held on November 11, ICC Sweden hosted the seminar “Business, Energy and Climate: Before and after Paris” on the state of play of the negotiations a few weeks before COP21;
- ICC Russia hosted the round-table discussion “UN agreement on climate change: the role of business in the shaping of climate policy” on November 13;
