Global Executive Forum Series by Trade Finance Global and SME Finance Forum.

Our partner Trade Finance Global launched the Global Executive Forum Series, in a joint collaboration with the SME Finance Forum. The second interview in the series discusses ‘1.5°C Supply Chain Leaders’ with Maria Mendiluce, CEO of We Mean Business, Majda Dabaghi, Director for Green and inclusive Growth at the International Chamber of Commerce, and Johan Falk, Co-founder and Head of the Exponential Roadmap Initiative.

 

It’s not news that business has a huge role to play in ensuring we halve greenhouse gas emissions by 2030. Or that this 2030 milestone is critical to avoid runaway climate change. But until now, the focus has been very much on big business. Multinationals like IKEA, Unilever and BT Group were among the businesses that gave governments confidence the ambition of the Paris Agreement was possible. Now around 1,000 companies have committed to cut their emissions in line with science. And we are seeing new announcements each week, recently from the likes of corporate giants Facebook, Uber, Google and Amazon.

 

For these companies, one of the most challenging parts of achieving their science-based emission reduction targets is addressing the emissions from their supply chains. An average of 5.5 times a company’s direct emissions is located in a company’s supply chains which often encompass thousands of smaller firms operating in a broad cross-section of countries. It is therefore vital that all those small and medium-sized companies in large corporate supply chains decarbonise, and that they are supported and incentivised to do so. Smaller companies do not have the luxury of sustainability teams to take them on this journey, so ensuring they get the support they need is vital.

 

Read the whole interview here>