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SAP’s Peter Graf on the World Business Summit on Climate Change

I spoke to SAP‘s Chief Sustainability Officer, Peter Graf about his attendance at the World Business Summit on Climate Change which took place in Copenhagen recently.

When you hear of businesses getting together to discuss climate change, you could easily be tempted to think they are trying to lobby for less regulation or for licenses to pollute. However, the mandate for attendees was for CEOs to:

discuss how their firms can help solve the climate crisis through innovative business models, new partnerships, and the development of low-carbon technologies

The result of the meeting was a document called The Copenhagen Call which sets out 6 steps to be implemented to set a firm foundation for a sustainable economic future

  1. Agreement on a science-based greenhouse gas stabilization path with 2020 and 2050 emissions reduction targets that will achieve it;
  2. Effective measurement, reporting and verification of emissions performance by business;
  3. Incentives for a dramatic increase in financing low emissions technologies;
  4. Deployment of existing low-emissions technologies and the development of new ones;
  5. Funds to make communities more resilient and able to adapt to the effects of climate change, and
  6. Means to finance forest protection.