Climate Solutions on the Global Agenda
As economies and societies begin to transition past the worst of the COVID-19 pandemic, climate change is now center stage as a critical issue for multilateral cooperation. This decade is a time to advance progress to address the climate crisis and help achieve the UN Sustainable Development Goals — an aim made more difficult because of the pandemic’s development backslide on global poverty, health equity, and gender equality.
Responding to the net-zero call
Around the world, countries and governments are focused on the transition to “net-zero” greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. In the U.S., the Biden administration is engaging quickly to establish the foundation of a federal climate policy through executive orders and regulatory reviews toward a 100% clean energy and net-zero emissions targets by 2050. Similar moves have been made in other regions. The European Union will soon enable a series of green initiatives toward becoming the first climate neutral continent. China, Japan and South Korea have all set carbon neutral goals and timetables. Brazil will be pressured to reduce deforestation in the Amazon. Multilateral institutions such as the World Bank are encouraging countries and companies to adopt plans to strengthen climate resilience and rebuild economies in the aftermath of the pandemic.
Companies and their industry groups are responding with climate commitments and solutions. As one example, the Business Roundtable announced in September 2020 a set of new principles and policies to address climate change. They included the recommendation to adopt a national market-based emissions reduction policy in the U.S. to reduce carbon emissions.
Scaling up sustainability
The private sector has a vital role to play in addressing the climate crisis. Businesses can help develop clean energy innovation, implement meaningful changes across their global supply chains, encourage employees and customers to adopt more sustainable behaviors, and promote sound policy outcomes. In the last year, we have seen a surge in new corporate commitments and strategic initiatives focused on sustainability.
The environmental disclosure firm, CDP, found that the number of major companies who disclosed their environmental impact and aggressively committed to reducing it increased 45 percent in 2020 over the previous year. Companies rated highly for climate disclosure also gained 5.3 percent more in the stock market than peers over the past seven years. Biden’s Security & Exchange Commission (SEC) may soon mandate new climate reporting practices for public companies.
While many companies have announced carbon reduction commitments to be reached by the end of the decade or later, the near-term challenge is to take the steps that will demonstrate real progress toward these targets this year. At the same time, companies need to begin to invest in the “moonshot” innovations that will enable leap-frog technologies over the next decade.
When, where and how companies can act on policy
While every company must align on the specific issues that are material to its business, several themes are likely to drive climate policy and sustainability conversations this year. Corporate leaders should today be asking two questions: [1] how does our business impact the climate, [2] how does the climate impact our business. Climate risks are business risks, and companies need strategies to mitigate them just as with other risks.
We recommend companies address several key questions to map how their sustainability strategies and key investments align with and help solve macro challenges:
· NET-ZERO: How is your company planning to contribute to the aims of the Paris Climate Agreement and to national targets being established to achieve net-zero carbon emissions?
· CIRCULAR ECONOMY: How is your company working to responsibly source raw materials and reduce waste by investing in regenerative models that promote keeping materials in use through their entire life cycle?
· PLASTICS POLLUTION: How is your company addressing the use of plastics — especially single-use-plastics — across supply chains and ensuring plastics do not leak into the environment?
· CLIMATE ADAPTATION: How is your company addressing biodiversity, land and water conservation and other adaptive efforts to improve climate resiliency change?
· ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE: How is your company working to ensure that lower-income or disadvantaged communities do not bear a disproportionate burden of pollution or environmental harms?
The communications imperatives
Here are a few guidelines to consider when communicating about sustainability:
· CREATE AN ENTERPRISE-LEVEL SUSTAINABILITY PLATFORM. Leading companies are crafting ambitious enterprise-level sustainability strategies — and articulating them on a succinct, accessible creative platform that builds engagement for the company’s work and positive impact.
· CALIBRATE YOUR CLIMATE AMBITION. Many companies have made bold commitments to transition to net-zero emissions and even to reverse their legacy environmental footprint. The scale of your ambitions depends on the issues material to your business and your desire to set the standard in your industry.
· SHOW EVIDENCE OF PROGRESS AGAINST TANGIBLE GOALS. Transparency is critical for building credibility and earning trust. Stakeholders want to understand your progress, as well as how you may be “failing forward” and learning as you work to transform your business.
· COMMUNICATE MORE ABOUT THE “S” IN ESG. The pandemic has revealed gaps in corporate efforts around the social impacts within environmental, social and governance (ESG), including employee and customer health and safety, human rights, labor standards and improving local communities where you operate. These should be addressed as part of any green recovery or net-zero transition effort.
· DECIDE WHEN AND HOW YOU WILL DEMONSTRATE CORPORATE ADVOCACY. Determine how you will engage employees, customers and other stakeholders on climate and ESG issues, including when to deploy board members, the CEO and other senior leaders, and how to work partners who can help inform and validate your climate progress.
To read our full client advisory, “Meeting the Moment on Climate Change,” please click here.
Edited by Emily Winston
Want to work with us? For inquiries, please reach out to Ellen DeMunter at Edemunter@powelltate.com
About Weber Shandwick Public Affairs
Our global public affairs expert counselors, spanning 25 countries & 36 cities, work with brands to navigate the convergence of government, business, technology and culture. We collaborate with corporate and marketing teams to assess and shape policy issues that drive sales and reputation.
We create impactful, data-driven, breakthrough campaigns that shape the debate, build advocacy and effect change on issues that matter most, from environmental stewardship to access to healthcare to human rights. We also bring political diversity to our work, with global experts coming from the highest levels of government, political campaigns, corporations, media, law firms, NGOs and regulatory agencies.
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