Climate change: now or never for companies
Ana Amar
Regional Director, LATAM, Corporate Citizenship
At the same time as the World Bank is doubling its investments in climate action for the period 2020-2025, the global losses insured by natural disasters reach their highest level of US $ 55,000 million.
In this context, the year 2019 promises to be decisive in determining whether the deep emission reductions, which are required for a rapid transition to a global economy without carbon, will be reality or fiction. Our country, as the venue for the COP25 that will be held in December, has the unique opportunity to lead the advance and contribute to making the change a reality.
But this goes far beyond any eventual agreement between governments. The eyes are also placed on companies to lead the way and act quickly and significantly.
The recommendations of the G20’s Climate Financial Disclosure Task Force (TCFD) are causing increasing scrutiny from analysts and investors, who want to know if their funds and assets are ready to respond and adapt to climate change.
In this time of Annual Meetings and Reports, we can confirm that companies in Chile have advanced a lot in this sense, but at the same time we see that there is still a long way to go to get closer to the leading companies worldwide. For example, Shell has taken the lead by announcing its intention to link the remuneration of its top executives to CO2 reduction targets.
Companies that do not act quickly and communicate their risks and opportunities related to climate in a clear and transparent manner expose themselves to important damages. For businesses, it’s now or never. The Boards should address the issue, a long-term climate strategy should be established and clearly communicated, ambitious and scientifically sound goals of greenhouse gas reduction should be set, and then put into practice through concrete actions.