Various South African companies, including insurers Santam and Sanlam, joined leaders from over 500 global enterprizes in signing ‘The Copenhagen Communiqué'. With the document, they are irging the world's political leaders to agree on an "ambitious, robust and equitable" global deal on climate change. 

They furthermore warn that business will suffer if a credible deal was not reached at the United Nations (UN) Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen, which takes place this year December.

"These are difficult and challenging times for the international business community and a poor outcome from the UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen will only make them more so, by creating uncertainty and undermining confidence," said business leaders in the document.

The issue of financing for climate change mitigation and adaptation was one of the most contentious issues in the climate negotiations, with a variety of estimates suggesting that between $100-billion and $200-billion would be needed yearly by 2030 to help developing countries reduce their emissions and adapt to the climate change already being experienced.

In the Copenhagen Communiqué, business leaders argued that "the costs of transition are manageable, even in the current economic climate". They further stated that "the more ambitious the framework, the more business will deliver, but delay is not an option".

They warned that economic development would not be sustained in the longer term, unless the climate was stabilised. "It is critical that we exit this recession in a way that lays the foundation for low-carbon growth and avoids locking us into a high carbon future."

The companies also called for emission reduction targets to be guided by science and offered support for the emerging consensus to limit global average temperature rise to less than 2 ºC compared with pre-industrial levels. In turn, they recognised that this would require global emissions to peak and begin to decline rapidly within the next decade and reduce by 50% to 85% by 2050.

Source: Engineering News