FTSE 100 businesses forefront climate change initiatives at COP26

HIGHLIGHTS

• 60 FTSE 100 companies have pledged to go carbon neutral by 2050
• More than 5,200 businesses have joined the UN Race to Zero
• Poland and Chile have committed to eliminate coal usage
  

With the growing consciousness around climate change, businesses are thoroughly participating and contributing towards the larger objective outlined by the government of the United Kingdom. As the 26th UN Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP26) gets underway in Glasgow, corporations from across the globe are increasingly setting ambitious goals to curb the menace of whirlwinding carbon emissions.

The Prime Minister’s Ten Point plan for the UK to achieve net zero status by 2050 has received comprehensive support from leading companies and age-old conglomerates operating in various sectors. In order to bolster the net zero initiative, Britain’s largest enterprises have come forward with progressive commitments.

Extending the proportionate support in reducing the carbon footprint in Britain, more than 50% of the FTSE 100 companies have pledged to go carbon neutral by 2050. Representing a combined market capitalisation of more than £1.2 trillion and a cumulative annual turnover of £700 billion, as many as 60 heavyweight corporations representing the prestigious FTSE 100 index have signed up to the United Nation’s ‘Race to Zero’ campaign.

Also Read | Next (NXT) expects no Xmas sales boom: Should you hold the shares?

The commitments from UK’s leading businesses have more than quadrupled since November of 2020, effectively accelerating the momentum for the broader objective of net zero and encouraging the small-and-medium sized enterprises to join the initiative. The all-round support from UK-based businesses has positioned Britain at the top as the leading countries prepare for the transformation to a low carbon economy.

Supporting the global initiative, more than 5,200 businesses of different scales and nature of operations have joined the UN Race to Zero. Of the total, nearly half of these are British-based enterprises operating in various sectors including retail, technology, finance and transport. This signals a strong shift in the UK economy towards a greener future as independent experts and organisations make sure that everyone in the Race to Zero are achieving the definitive targets.

Of late, 190 nations, as well as organisations have pledged to quit coal as a source for electricity generation and other industry-wide usages. Nations including Poland and Chile have committed to reduce the usage of fossil fuels, ultimately shifting away from carbon generating fuels as coal is the single biggest contributor to climate change. However, the biggest consumers of coal in the world including India, the United States, China and Australia have not made such commitments so far.

Also Read | COP26 impact: Amazon’s Jeff Bezos makes $2 bn climate pledge

The new-age companies operating with multiple objectives to support the green economy are leading the way as the conventional businesses plan to downsize the dependency on fossil fuels, productively expediting the transition to net zero by attracting private investment.

Supplementing the broader objective of achieving net zero, more than 2,000 small scale enterprises from various regions in the UK have committed to reduce emissions from their respective processes as they join the Together For Our Planet Business Climate Leaders campaign, launched by Prime Minister Borish Johnson in the present calendar year itself.

The United Kingdom economy has been gradually improving with time as the national economic output increased by 78% between 1990 and 2019, with the net carbon emissions falling by 44% in the corresponding period. This has been made possible with the businesses continuously demonstrating environment-friendly actions, taking appropriate measures to tackle climate change and steering the reduction of carbon emission at the fastest pace among the G7 nations.

The businesses aligning their operations with the net zero objective are generating new employment opportunities, helping small-scale enterprises to grow, encouraging private investments from domestic, as well as overseas players and optimising the processes to decrease the operational costs. With all of this, the corporations are gaining competitive advantage, saving money, attracting new customers and associating with different counterparts carrying similar objectives.