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ICC calls on governments for collaboration with business to tackle climate challenge
WITH LESS than two weeks to go to the UN Conference on climate change (COP21) and the conclusion of the G20 last weekend, the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) continues to engage its network in more than 130 countries to advocate for a climate deal that engages business to fully address the climate challenge.
"ICC has underscored the need for the G20 to show leadership in engaging and collaborating with the private sector in an unprecedented way to tackle the climate challenge," said Kersten-Karl Barth, Chair of the ICC Commission on the Environment and Energy.
As energy investment is expected to be the largest single area of overall infrastructure investment over the coming decades requiring US$1-2 trillion per annum over the coming decades - engagement of the private sector will be critical.
As the lead business representative to the UNFCCC, ICC supports an ambitious global agreement which works with business to speed emissions reductions and build climate resilience.
Invited by French Foreign Affairs Minister Laurent Fabius to speak on behalf of business and industry NGOs at the pre-COP meeting involving in Paris last Sunday, ICC Secretary General John Danilovich said: "Businesses are already innovating to develop the technological, organizational and financial solutions needed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and to adapt to changing climate patterns.
"But to scale up these solutions we need enhanced collaboration between business, and more importantly, between the public and private sectors."
Mr Danilovich led a business delegation at the G20 Summit in Antalya, Turkey in what was an important staging post ahead of COP21.
Representing an ICC delegation at the latest UNFCCC negotiations in Bonn, Germany last October, Andrea Bacher, ICC Policy Executive said: "Business is a key driver in implementing climate solutions and should be anchored in the COP21 agreement in order to be able to leverage the expertise, experience and innovation of the private sector."
ICC national committees all over the world will also be promoting an ambitious global climate agreement which works with business with a series of events throughout the month of November:
- Held on 11 November, ICC Sweden hosted the seminar "Business, Energy and Climate: Before and after Paris" on the state of play of the negotiations a few weeks before COP21;
- ICC Russia hosted the round-table discussion "UN agreement on climate change: the role of business in the shaping of climate policy" on 13 November;
- USCIB, ICC US affiliate, is organizing a COP21 Preparatory Meeting for U.S. Business on 17 November in Washington D.C.
Follow ICC on the road to COP21 at cop21.iccwbo.org
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