With the World Economic Forum underway this week climate change is set to be at the top of the agenda at the Davos 2020 forum. In a letter to attending companies the World Economic Forum has this year urged all attendees to make a commitment to tackling climate change by setting a target of net-zero emissions by 2050 or sooner.
The Forum suggested in the letter that this year’s meeting would be a crucial time for demonstrating leadership on climate change. According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) to limit global warming to 1.5-2 °C global greenhouse emissions must reduce by 3-6% by 2030, however currently they are still rising by 1.5%. Despite a recent study finding that 64% of UK chief executives consider climate change a threat to their business, it has also been found that of 7000 companies that have disclosed their climate emissions, only one eighth are actually reducing their emissions every year.
This letter comes after the WEF Global Risks Report 2020 was published, in which the top five long term risks listed are climate change related in terms of likelihood and impact. These risks are extreme weather events, failure to act on climate change, natural disasters, major biodiversity loss and human-made environmental disasters. The World Economic Forum have continued to acknowledge the human and economic costs of climate change and intend to focus this year’s Davos Forum around theme “stakeholders for a cohesive and sustainable world”. This is the first year in the history of the report that climate change risks have consistently ranked higher than economic risks.
WEF founder Klaus Schwab has said he hopes to convey the sense of urgency for climate action in this year’s meeting adding “Now we have recognized the urgency, because we know the window to act (on climate change) is closing,”.
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