Embargoed: 11:00 CET, 13 April 2014
IPCC report ‘a wake up call’ says Prince of Wales’ Corporate Leaders Group
A coalition of leading UK, EU and international companies, including, Acciona, Coca-Cola Enterprises, EDF Energy, Shell, Tesco and Unilever, today welcomed the third part of the 5th Assessment Report from the Intergovernmental Panel Climate Change (IPCC), Mitigation of Climate Change.
Eliot Whittington, Deputy Director of The Prince of Wales’s Corporate Leaders Group, said: "This latest report from the IPCC is the one that many businesses have been waiting most eagerly to read – here is the latest scientific analysis of the solutions that we can employ to limit the stock of atmospheric greenhouse gases and the consequent climate change. The report contains some stark home truths about the scale of the challenge and the progress we’re making to date. Rather than slowing and declining, greenhouse gas emissions are rising at a faster rate than ever before and no country has plans in place that are sufficient to keep warming below the globally agreed limit of 2°C.
“Many leading businesses are well aware of the need for a collective wake up call. The Trillion Tonne Communiqué, already signed by over 90 companies from 5 continents, and with fast-growing support, calls for an increase in the pace and scale of action. Specifically, the signatories urge policy makers to take a number of significant actions in line with the science of the IPCC, including setting a timeline for phasing out greenhouse gas emissions before the end of the century, designing a credible strategy to transform the energy system, and creating a plan to manage reliance on fossil fuels, especially coal.”
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Notes
The Prince of Wales’s Corporate Leaders Group convenes business leaders from major UK, EU, and international companies who believe that there is an urgent need to develop new and longer term policies for tackling climate change. Members include: Acciona, Anglian Water Group, Aviva, BSkyB, BT, Coca-Cola Enterprises, Doosan, DSM, EDF Energy, GlaxoSmithKline, Heathrow, Interface, Kingfisher, Lloyds Banking Group, Philips, Shell, Skanska, Tesco, Thames Water, Unilever, and United Technologies Corporation. The group has been formed under the auspices of The Prince of Wales and is managed by the University of Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership (CISL). www.cisl.cam.ac.uk/CLG
To read the Trillion Tonne Communiqué, see the signatories, and access translations go to: www.climatecommuniques.com. The Communiqué remains open for signing by businesses.
The University of Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership (CISL) brings together business, government and academia to find solutions to critical sustainability challenges. www.cisl.cam.ac.uk
