A low carbon future does not mean low profit for the 187 companies who have made it onto a new climate performance leadership index. ‘The A List’ includes businesses that exhibit leadership through action to mitigate climate change.
The list of companies was compiled by CDP, an international NGO that drives sustainable economies, and published in The A List: The CDP Climate Performance Leadership Index. The new list was created at the request of 767 investors who represent more than a third of the world’s invested capital.
Information provided by nearly 2,000 listed companies was independently assessed against CDP’s widely respected scoring methodology and ranked accordingly.
BMW AG, Centrica, Samsung Electronics and Unilever were among the 187 businesses from around the world to demonstrate a superior approach to climate change mitigation. Awarded an A grade for their performance, they earned a position on the first global ranking of corporate efforts to combat climate change.
Collectively the climate performance leaders have reduced their total (absolute) emissions by 33 million metric tons in the past reporting year, equivalent to turning London’s car owners into cyclists for two and a half years.
The news follows a renewed political focus on climate commitments at the UN Secretary General’s Climate Summit in New York last month and a growing consensus on the scale of the economic threat of climate change.
Paul Simpson, chief executive officer of CDP, said in a press release: “The bottom line is at risk from the climate crisis. The unprecedented environmental challenges that we confront today are also economic problems. This irrefutable fact is filtering through to companies and investors.
“The businesses that have made it onto our first ever global list of climate performance leaders are to be congratulated for their progress; they debunk economic arguments against reducing emissions. However, global emissions continue to rise at an alarming rate. Businesses and governments must raise their climate ambition. The data shows that there is neither an excuse nor the time for lethargy.”
Photo credit: United Nations Photo/ CC BY-NC-ND 2.0
