Today we’re thrilled to announce that more than 200 businesses have committed to decarbonizing and reaching net zero emissions by 2040. Welcoming signatories like Procter & Gamble, HP, and Salesforce, this growth is a shift in the industry and exemplifies how companies are prioritizing the planet.
Today we’re thrilled to announce that more than 200 businesses have committed to decarbonizing and reaching net zero emissions by 2040. Welcoming signatories like Procter & Gamble, HP, and Salesforce, this growth is a shift in the industry and exemplifies how companies are prioritizing the planet.
In 2019, Amazon and Global Optimism co-founded The Climate Pledge, a commitment to reach the Paris Agreement 10 years early and be net zero carbon by 2040. Now that more than 200 organizations have signed the Pledge, demand will rapidly grow for products and services that help reduce carbon emissions.
Marking this milestone, as well as the two-year anniversary of The Climate Pledge, we sat down with Christina Figueres, founding partner of Global Optimism, to discuss the collective impact of signatories, the dire IPCC report, and how she maintains her optimism and vision for the future.
The Climate Pledge: We just announced that over 200 signatories have signed the Pledge since its founding two years ago. Why does this milestone matter?
Christiana: It matters because we are up against the clock on climate. The stakes for humanity are now so great, the impacts coming so hard and so fast, that the only responsible reaction from the business community is to match that speed with solutions, now.
The fact we have over 200 companies recognizing the urgency to act, recognizing their potential to shape the future by cutting their emissions to net zero by 2040—ten years ahead of what the Paris Agreement calls for—is significant. It’s a signal of certainty: we do have the will to do what it takes. I see this moment as a lighthouse on the way to decarbonizing the economy: these 200 companies are showing us the way. Now the job is to act on and honor those commitments: meet them, beat them, and share the stories along the way of how it is being done.
The Climate Pledge: We’d love to hear your vision for the Pledge. When you’re dreaming big, what’s the goal here? How many companies?
Christiana: For us the Pledge was a pathway to fundamentally shift the mindsets of the private sector writ large. 200 companies already committed is significant. Very significant. But we all know it’s nowhere near enough—yet—given the stakes and the timeframe we have left to make a difference.
The atmosphere is more likely interested in ensuring that the biggest emitters from the most challenging (or “hard to abate”) sectors get on track with this journey, so that’s where the strategic focus has to be now: on bringing these keystone actors to the table as soon as possible. They may be a minority in terms of numbers, but they have extraordinary reach and influence: commitments and action from them would have knock on effects that go far beyond their own operations.
But let’s not put a limit on this—after all, Tom and I wrote a chapter in our book about Endless Abundance: we need to go exponential now!
