Top businesses urge Gordon Brown to fight for emissions cut in Copenhagen
SOME of Britain’s biggest businesses are today urging the Prime Minister to fight for a global cut in carbon emissions at next week’s climate change negotiations in Copenhagen.
The Prince of Wales’s Corporate Leaders Group on Climate Change – which includes firms such as Shell, Tesco and Unilever – will tonight present a communiqué endorsed by more than 850 companies to Gordon Brown calling for action.
World leaders are meeting in Copenhagen for the UN’s Climate Summit next week to hammer out a global agreement on emissions. The communiqué sets out the business case for agreeing a deal, arguing that economic growth is unsustainable unless the climate is stabilised.
The business leaders urge developed countries to take on “immediate and deep emission reduction commitments” and called on countries to show “low-carbon growth is both achievable and desirable”.
Lloyds Banking Group is also a signatory and its executive director Truett Tate said: “It is hard to imagine that there is a single corporate or business customer that won’t experience the impact of climate change.
“For some it will be about increased risks but for others it will be increased opportunities. An effective global agreement in Copenhagen is critical to give business increased certainty as we move to a low carbon economy.”