Time for corporates to act on climate change

THE twin topics of climate change and greenhouse emissions are heating up both corporate boardrooms and our planet - figuratively as well as literally. While governments and world bodies discuss and debate policies and emission percentages, it is time for the private and public businesses to act as well.

A small step was taken on Dec 2, 2019 when about 80 CEOs from some of the largest US-based multinational corporations (MNCs) that employ two million people - and union leaders who represent 12.5 million workers - signed to support the Paris Agreement on Climate Change. Governments alone can only do so much; companies need to step up to commit to do their part in arresting greenhouse emissions, which have reached critical levels.

Today's atmosphere contains 42 per cent more carbon dioxide than it did at the start of the industrial era. And levels of methane and carbon dioxide are the highest they have been in nearly half a million years.