A coalition of multinational companies including Ericsson, IKEA, Telia, BT Group and Unilever has announced the launch of a one-stop-shop climate action platform for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to curb carbon emissions, build business resilience and gain competitive advantage. The founding companies are determined to halve their own supply chain’s emissions by 2030.
The coalition of multinational corporations has set a target of reaching net-zero emissions in their value chains, and have committed their support to the SME Climate Hub through a new “1.5°C Supply Chain Leaders” group.
All of the above companies have made a firm commitment to include climate-related targets and performance in their supplier purchasing criteria — and to work with the SMEs in their supply chain to deliver net-zero greenhouse emissions before 2050. They will also provide concrete tools, share knowledge and exchange best practices for implementing robust climate strategies through the SME Climate Hub.
The new scheme binds the companies together to bolster their long-term goals in unison. It requires signatories to halve their supply chain emissions by 2030 – reporting annually on their progress – and to make climate-related targets and performance a key part of purchasing criteria and contracts within 12 months. Signatories will share best-practice advice in a pre-competitive manner to help further drive progress.
The SME Climate Hub will encourage small and medium-sized companies to commit to halving greenhouse gas emissions before 2030 and reaching net-zero emissions before 2050.
European countries banning the sale of the new fossil fuel vehicles
The UK government is also planning to introduce a ban on new fossil fuel vehicles as early as 2030 in order to achieve the country’s target of reaching net-zero emissions by 2050. According to the Guardian, the plans for dramatically accelerating the transition to zero-emission vehicles are expected to be announced later this year.
However, many European countries have already taken steps towards the ban. Norway was the first European country to announce its proposed ban on fossil fuel cars in 2016, planning to prohibit the sale of all petrol and diesel vehicles by 2025. In the same year, German federal states also called for a ban on all petrol and diesel cars by the start of the year 2030, leaving only zero-emissions vehicles on the road. The Dutch Government confirmed in 2017 that it was looking at plans to ban petrol and diesel vehicles by 2030, stating that all new cars in the Netherlands must be emission-free.
Meanwhile, France will ban the sale of new fossil-fuel powered vehicles by 2040 (which was the UK’s original plan).
Photo: Pixabay