By Frank Sherman
President Biden will host 40 world leaders next week in a virtual Leaders Summit on Climate to galvanize support to tackle climate change. Having rejoined the Paris Climate Agreement on his first day in office, Biden wants to retake global leadership of this existential issue to underscore the urgency and economic benefits of stronger climate action.
Before the Leaders Summit, the Biden Administration will announce a new U.S. Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC), an emissions reduction target for 2030. Upon signing the Paris Agreement in 2015, each of the 190 participating countries submitted their initial NDC. President Obama pledged to cut U.S. emissions by 26-28% below 2005 levels by 2025. We are currently less than halfway to our original goal. Under Paris, countries are expected to submit updated commitments every five years.
Today, the We Mean Business Coalition announced that 310 businesses and investors, including Google, McDonalds, Walmart, CalSTRS……and Seventh Generation Interfaith, have signed an open letter to President Biden indicating our support for nearly doubling the emission reduction targets set by the Obama administration. This is consistent with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) conclusion that, to have any chance of limiting temperature rise to 1.5˚C, global emissions must fall at least 50 percent by 2030. Corporate executives called the 50% reduction target “ambitious and attainable.”
For SGI, the decision to sign is fairly straight-forward. The COVID-19 pandemic and racial justice concerns may have overshadowed the climate crisis in the news much of last year, but the climate crisis will continue its march as the 21st century’s most dangerous and intractable threat. Hence, SGI members continue to engage companies to address the risks and opportunities of the warming planet.
Business leaders’ decision to break with Republicans in the post-Trump era follows similar moves on voting rights and racial justice. They risk further alienating Republicans by pressing Biden to aggressively combat climate change. But they also recognize the risks and the benefits posed by the climate crisis. In a counter argument to the fossil fuel narrative that climate action will cost jobs and raise energy costs, Patrick Flynn, vice president of sustainability for Salesforce, which signed on to the letter, said he hopes businesses will lobby Congress to support the Biden administration’s target. “We know it will create millions of jobs, we know it’s a good thing for the economy, and we know if we do it right we can do it in a way that leaves no one behind” (NYT, April 13, 2021).
These are historic times. When your grandchildren ask you someday in the future… “where were you when these decisions were being made?,” you’ll be able to tell them that you were on the right side of history.
Seventh Generation Interfaith Coalition for Responsible Investing 