Negotiators working on the official COP 27 outcomes in Sharm el-Sheikh are being urged to remember that “1.5°C is a limit, not a target”, requiring them to work “collaboratively and relentlessly” to halve global emissions by 2030.
“As business and civil society leaders, and representatives of science and communities around the world, we are committed to doing everything in our power to limit global warming to 1.5°C and avoid dangerous tipping points,” says a statement co-authored by the We Mean Business Coalition and The B Team, released at COP 27 late last week. “Every fraction of a degree of global heating matters.”
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“To keep within this limit, we must all work collaboratively and relentlessly to halve global emissions by 2030,” the letter adds. Current Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) won’t hit that target, so “governments must strengthen their commitments and plans, and implement them without delay.”
In so doing, they would follow in the footsteps of the thousands of companies, unions, investors, cities, states, and regions who are committed to 1.5°C, and already taking science-based climate action: “delivering clean energy solutions, developing innovative finance mechanisms, and building the resilience of vulnerable communities.”
Amazon, IKEA, Microsoft, Walmart, and Volvo are among the corporate signatories to statement. Ceres, the International Trade Union Confederation, and the World Resources Institute are among scores of civil society organizations that have also signed on, vowing they are “all in” on the push to limit global heating to 1.5°C.
Individual signatories include former UN climate secretary Christiana Figueres and former Irish president Mary Robinson, who is now chair of The Elders, an international group of global leaders.
We Mean Business Coalition CEO María Mendiluce urged countries attending the G20 meeting in Bali this week to also “urgently align their implementation plans to 1.5°C.”
