August 26, 2020 by Climate Leaders Coalition
Building an Australian Climate Leaders Coalition
An initiative of The B-Team Australasia, The Climate Leaders’ Coalition (CLC) is building momentum with our launch meeting having taken place on 26 August 2020. This was a roundtable session of the 22 Founding Member CEOs representing a diverse range of leading Australian companies and organisations. The CLC is jointly Chaired by David Thodey and John Lydon.
The guest speaker at the launch, Paul Polman, former CEO of Unilever and global chair of The B Team, provided global insight into similar initiatives that have successfully collaborated to solve complex and challenging climate issues. The CLC Founding Members include the CEOs of some of Australia’s largest resources and industrial companies along with leading companies from the property, consumer goods, finance, technology, research and advisory sectors. Members support the Paris Agreement commitments and either have or are setting public decarbonisation targets.
The coalition’s purpose is to help Australian business more effectively address some of the hardest decarbonisation challenges to make significant progress on emissions reduction while also ensuring long term economic sustainability. The CLC will be action orientated and provide an open, confidential and authentic forum for CEOs to share the challenges of their decarbonisation journeys. It will be inclusive and provide information and case studies to facilitate learning and fully understand their options. Simply put, this is about business becoming more effective in doing its bit to reduce emissions.
On joining, Founding Members make the following commitment:
‘For the viability of our businesses, for the generations after us and for the country we love, we are ambitious for action on climate change. If we act now, we can forge a path to create a future that is low-emissions, positive for our businesses and economy, and inclusive for all Australians. We are committed to playing our part to make that future real. If we don’t, our competitiveness is at risk.
We take climate change seriously in our business:
- We support the Paris Agreement and Australia’s commitment to it, including the objective to keep global warming to well below 2 degrees above pre-industrial levels;
- We measure the greenhouse gas emissions associated with our environmental footprint and, if not already done, will set public emissions reduction targets within 12 months of joining;
- We work with our suppliers and customers to encourage them to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions; and
- We believe that a responsible and equitable transition to a low emissions economy is an opportunity to improve Australia’s prosperity.’
