COP29 campaign seeks to rally 10,000 small firms worldwide to commit to CO2 cuts
SME Climate Ambition Drive launched by We Mean Business coalition and COP29’s UN Climate Change High Level Champion.
A global campaign to encourage 10,000 small and medium sized businesses to commit to slashing their carbon emissions has been launched by the SME Climate Hub alongside Azerbaijan’s UN Climate Change High Level Champion for COP29, Nigar Arpadarai.
The SME Climate Ambition Drive is seeking to mobilise thousands of smaller businesses worldwide to make individual and collective decarbonisation commitments ahead of the upcoming UN Climate Summit, which is being hosted in Azerbaijan’s capital city Baku in November.
Early supporters of the campaign include Swedish retail giant IKEA, ethical business non-profit B Lab, Cambridge University’s Institute for Sustainability Leadership (CISL), and the World Business Council for Sustainable Development’s (WBCSD) Climate Drive initiative.
These organisations and other supporters – including large businesses, financial institutions, governments, trade associations, and NGOs – are being encouraged to rally their networks and value chains to convince 10,000 SMEs to sign up to the SME Climate Commitment before COP29.
Arpadarai described SMEs as the “backbone of the global economy and essential to reaching a net zero, resilient future for all”.
“Enabling SMEs to take ambitious climate action is my core priority ahead of COP29,” she said. “I am pleased to support the launch of the SME Climate Ambition Drive – working with all actors to support SMEs in taking urgent and decisive action by joining the Race to Zero, as a key pillar of my Climate Proofing SMEs campaign.”
SMEs represent 90 per cent of businesses globally, employ 70 per cent of the world’s workforce, and contribute over 50 per cent of the global GDP. As such their collective impact on climate change and the net zero transition is hugely significant. Recent estimates from the OECD and European Commission suggest SMEs contribute between 50 and 64 per cent of total business sector emissions worldwide, but due to their smaller scale and financial constraints they often face challenges in assessing their climate impact and taking action to decarbonise.
The SME Climate Ambition Drive aims to address these challenged by connecting smaller firms with larger organisations that can help them take steps to transition towards net zero emissions, backed by a variety of tools and support from the SME Climate Hub.
María Mendiluce, CEO of the We Mean Business Coalition – the host organisation of the SME Climate Hub – said it was “imperative that leading SMEs globally take responsibility” and commit to reducing their emissions.
“As countries are developing the next round of NDCs [nationally-determined contributions to the Paris Agreement] and the supporting policies that will come with them, clear plans to support SMEs are going to be key to ensure we leave no one behind in the transition,” she said.
“However, their effort will not be successful without the active support of national governments, organisations, and corporations They must take bold steps to incentivise and reward responsible SMEs within their value chains and networks. Only through this collective effort can we mobilize SMEs at a scale that can have impact in the net zero future.”