We Mean Business, an international coalition of advocacy groups, said 87 multinationals had signed up to its initiative to get companies to align their operations with a goal of limiting the increase in average global temperatures to 1.5ºC (34.7ºF) in line with the 2015 Paris Agreement. Among these companies are Nokia, French food group Danone and British drugmaker AstraZeneca.But some of the signatories have gone further, with companies such as Nestle, French building materials firm Saint-Gobain and cosmetics maker L’Oreal pledging to cut their carbon emissions to net-zero by 2050. Google, meanwhile, has announced it has struck 18 deals with wind and solar energy companies across US, Europe and Latin America to move to totally carbon-free operations.For its part, Facebook has undertaken to power its operations with renewables by 2020, while Amazon has said it will be carbon-free by 2030 and reach 'net-zero' carbon emissions throughout its supply chain by 2040.

Call for companies to cut emissions

However, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, who sees the private sector as crucial to boosting the Paris deal before it enters a crucial implementation phase next year, said in a statement, “Now we need many more companies to join the movement, sending a clear signal that markets are shifting.”Gudrun Cartwright, environment director at the UK's Business in the Community organisation, said that the group's Responsible Business Tracker showed that 86 per cent of companies had made commitments to cut emissions, but as few as 17 per cent had concrete plans to ensure they were carried out at every level of the organisation. "This isn’t good enough and we won’t see the change we need unless everyone acknowledges their role in preventing climate change," he said."The opportunity for real change will be lost if businesses don’t move away from grand purpose statements towards activism, because only then can we drive systemic change that has a lasting impact."

Climate change is a global issue

The Confederation of British Industry accepts that climate change demands urgent action and says "business must lead the way". But its policy document states, "Climate change is a global issue and, though business is focused on reducing its environmental impact, there is only so much firms can do alone. Business and government must work together – enabling low-carbon solutions to change the way we work, travel and power the economy."By working together, business and government can unleash the potential of low-carbon power; support the switch to low-emission vehicles; and develop low-carbon solutions for heating. We’re calling on the government to put policies in place that enable business to reduce emissions further."

A slow shift to clean energy

The appreciation of the need for action appears to be spreading to all sections of the economy. Ahead the UN summit, more than 500 institutional investors, managing $35 trillion in assets worldwide, urged greater action to tackle climate change and achieve the Paris Agreement’s goals.The 'Global Investor Statement to Governments on Climate Change' called for a phasing out of thermal coal power worldwide, for a "meaningful price" on carbon pollution, and for an end to government subsidies for fossil fuels. “The global shift to clean energy is underway, but much more needs to be done by governments to accelerate the low carbon transition and to improve the resilience of our economy, society and the financial system to climate risks,” the investors wrote.According to a study published in the latest Science magazine, reducing the magnitude of climate change is also a good investment. "Acting on climate change has a good return on investment when one considers the damages avoided by acting," said lead author, Prof Ove Hoegh-Guldberg from the University of Queensland.

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