Environment

BSR COP21 Daily Dispatch: Day 8

Dec 7, 2015 9:30 AM ET
World leaders convene all in one room at COP21 to work toward collaboration on global climate action. Photo: South Africa Government

Editor’s Note

On Friday, BSR participated in three separate events at COP21, but there was one common theme: collaboration.

In a morning Accenture event about digital carbon disruption, BSR President and CEO Aron Cramer named “radical collaboration” as one of the five key ways companies can disrupt climate change. Cramer focused on the role of the tech sector in offering transformative solutions—a timely discussion vis-à-vis last week’s news about the formation of the Breakthrough Energy Coalition, as well as Google’s decision to join the Climate Group and CDP’s collaborative initiative RE100 and triple its purchase of renewable energy by 2025.

The same day, BSR Senior Vice President Eric Olson participated in a discussion led by CDP and L’Oréal that focused on supply chain resilience. The companies represented in that session—including Kellogg Company, L’Oreal, Accenture, BT, and Johnson Controls—all emphasized how their ambitious goals to get 75 to 80 percent of their suppliers to set carbon-reduction targets required collaboration to ensure success. L’Oréal’s Chief Procurement Officer Régine Lucas called collaboration the “magic snowball effect” because it inspires others to join in with their own ambitious commitments.

Collaboration was a fitting theme for that event, where BSR and CDP announced our new partnership focusing on building supply chain resilience.

In another part of Paris, at Le Bourget, Cramer spoke at an event on short-lived climate pollutants that BSR hosted with the UNEP-Climate and Clean Air Coalition. There, too, the theme of collaboration was central: If all sectors take immediate action on short-lived climate pollutants, the probability of remaining below 2°C increases by 50 percent.

Now, the final and most important chapter of the collaboration story is on policy. As negotiators enter their second week of discussions, we hope they follow our advice and engage in radical collaboration that results in an ambitious Paris Agreement at the end of this week.

What's Important Now

  • More businesses and investors than ever are committing to a clean, vibrant, low-carbon economy.
  • Developing countries are legitimately asking for equitable finance for sustainable development—but it will also require far larger investment from all financial institutions globally.
  • If governments set up the billions—and deliver an ambitious deal—we’ll unlock the trillions.

BSR's Climate Insights

  • Read the highlights of BSR’s “Field to Market” event last week—Climate Change and Agriculture: Connecting Global Warming to Business Resilience: Read more
  • Working with Tech Leaders to Power the Internet with 100 Percent Renewable Energy: Read more
  • Black Carbon: An Opportunity for Low-Carbon Leadership: Read more (PDF)
  • Business Asks COP21 Negotiators for Specific Text in Paris Agreement to Ensure Ambition: Read more

What We're Reading

  • On the We Mean Business blog, from Ceres’ Peyton Fleming, “Thinking Big and Bold on Climate Finance”: Read more.
  • And don’t forget to read the We Mean Business “Business Brief: Shaping a Catalytic Paris Agreement,” which is important as we enter the second week of negotiations: Read more.
  • Friday’s opening of the “Solutions COP21,” which featured solutions for a low-carbon world from different arenas, including many companies, spurred some anti-business activism. Here’s an opinion article with a different perspective on the role of business in climate progress: "Corporations Will Never Solve Climate Change" | Harvard Business Review | December 4, 2015: Read more.

Events

  • December 7, 6:30-8 p.m., in the Conference Center (Blue Zone) at Le Bourget, Observer Room 3

    BSR, in partnership with the UNEP-Climate and Clean Air Coalition, the government of Norway, the Colombian Center for Sustainable Development Studies, and the World Bank, will hold “Reducing Methane Emissions from Oil and Gas Operations.” BSR President and CEO Aron Cramer will moderate the discussion, and BSR will preview the launch of its 2016 reports on the topic, written with the UNEP-Climate and Clean Air Coalition. This event is open to anyone who has a badge for the Blue Zone.
     
  • December 8, 11:45 a.m.-12:40 p.m., at the Stade de France

    BSR President and CEO Aron Cramer will speak during the “Innovation for Business Advantage” session at the UNEP-Climate Action’s Sustainable Innovation Forum. For more information about the two-day event, visit www.cop21paris.org.
     
  • December 9, 6:30-8 p.m., in the Conference Center (Blue Zone) at Le Bourget

    BSR President and CEO Aron Cramer will speak at the UNEP-Climate and Clean Air Coalition’s official side event on “Short-Lived Climate Pollutants,” which will highlight how reducing these emissions can result in economic, development, and health benefits. This event is open to anyone who has a badge for the Blue Zone.

To get news and insights from Paris delivered to you each day during COP21, sign up for our daily dispatches.