How Can Business Engage at COP21?

Climate Action’s latest video focuses on how businesses can best engage in COP21, the annual Conference of the Parties (COP) of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) taking place in Paris this December.

This year’s talks are particularly vital to the future of climate change, as they represent the last opportunity for a global agreement to limit global warming to 2° Centigrade.

The video outlines how businesses can engage in climate action in the run up to COP21, pointing out that sustainable companies have outperformed their peers by 9.1 per cent over the past four years. This not only incentivises the move to a sustainable agenda, but places sustainable businesses ahead of their competition, providing them with the resources to back a successful Paris agreement.

The video recommends businesses can take action now in order to engage with COP21, including making online pledges to align their internal policies and targets around carbon reduction with their peers. Companies can also become members of organisations such as Business Social Responsibility (BSR), Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) and Ceres, non-profit organisations that advocate a sustainable economic future through networks of investors, companies and public interest groups.

Although businesses are unable to attend the COP21 negotiations themselves, the private sector can engage through involvement in the numerous side events that will accompany the climate talks in the French capital.

The Sustainable Innovation Forum, for instance, is the largest business focused event held during the annual COP. Building on year-round work from Climate Action and the UN Environment Programme, the two day Forum will convene cross-sector participants from business, Government, finance, UN, NGO and civil society to create an unparalleled opportunity to bolster business innovation and bring scale to the emerging green economy. 

Register now to attend.