2020 — what a year!
What a year 2020 has been. COVID-19 has shown us many things, not least how connected we all are on an increasingly globalised planet. With the year 2030 now clearly in sight, now more than ever we must leverage the unified power we have across our interconnected networks to fight for meaningful change if we're to avoid a climate and ecological catastrophe.
This needs to be the decade of action, not procrastination.
Whilst a lot of us will want to forget about 2020, in amongst the pandemic there has been a lot to be hopeful about including:
In the UK the Climate and Ecological Emergency Bill (CEEBill) was launched, which we avidly support and on which Business Declares will hosting an event for Business on 21 January (Details Below) - Eventbrite Link
Recognising the importance of biodiversity as part of the wider climate emergency, Political Leaders from 80 countries have committed to reversing biodiversity loss by 2030 as part of their Pledge for Nature.
The USA, a major culprit of GHG emissions globally will reenter the Paris Climate Agreement under the Presidency of Joe Biden in 2021.
On Dec 9th-10th The Planetary Emergency Partnership
Annual Conference: 'Step Into a Better World', brought together 300+ stakeholders including UN Agencies, International organisations, NGOs, Academia and the private sector to influence the political agenda, scale up solutions, accelerate action and deliver positive impacts for people and the planet.
Event: The CEE Bill
2020: A Review
Supporting our Members
Help us grow by referring other businesses
Business Declares: The Climate and Ecological Emergency Bill
Thursday 21 January 2020
12:30–2pm GMT(UK time)
Tickets: Eventbrite
With just under a year until COP26-the 26th United Nations Climate Change conference — join Business Declares and guests for a 90 minute virtual event about how the CEE Bill is the emergency strategy needed to avert climate and ecological catastrophe and one that can determine the pathway for the UK to play its fair contribution in limiting global temperature increase to 1.5°C.
This event introduces the CEE Bill -- currently supported by 84 MPs from eight parties -- and its potential to reboot current climate and environmental legislation with the best science to date, along with the promotion of deliberative democratic decision-making in the inclusion of a citizens’ assembly.
Convenors:
Safia Minney MBE, REAL Sustainability
Ben Tolhurst, JLL
Panelists:
John Elkington , Volans (author of Green Swans)
Stephanie Biden, Partner Bates Wells
Dale Vince OBE , Founder of Ecotricity
Guy Singh-Watson, Founder Riverford Organics
Chris Davis, The Body Shop
2020: A Review
2020 has been a busy year for Business Declares, one that we will build on to push for faster and more effective progress on climate change.
Below is just some of the impactful work we've been involved in:
Race to Zero
Business Declares was excited to join it's first Race to Zero partners call led by Nigel Topping earlier this month. We have already start collaborating with other Race to Zero partners including the SME Climate Hub. We look forward to formally presenting Business Declares at the next call in January and being able to share with them details of our new members.
Tech Nation
November 25
Business Declares supported government-backed Tech Nation on the high profile launch event for (E)Mission Net Zero which highlighted the important role of tech and scale ups in the climate transition.
Featured speakers included:
Chris Stark, Louise Roper, Azeem Azhar, Rt Hon Kwasi Kwarteng MP, Alex Hickman, Special Advisor to No.10.
Participation from companies included:
Schneider Electric, JLL, Savills, BNP Paribas Real Estate, UK Green Building Council (UKGBC), SUEZ, WWF, Aviva Investors, Diageo, Octopus EV, AB Sugar, BP Ventures, BT, PWC, CCC and Volans.
Videos from the event are available on Tech Nation's YouTube channel.
The partnership continues with Business Declares presenting to the Tech Nation Net Zero Cohort and past alumni next February - with special thanks to BD member Tom Greenwood at WholeGrain Digital for agreeing to share his knowledge on Digital Decarbonisation.
IPCF
We have supported Steve Waygood in the development of the International Panel for Climate Finance ( IPCF) since its early days with facilitation support and participating in working groups. We are pleased to see the high level support now being given to this initiative, as one of the significant ways to ensure climate finance for the Paris agreement is achieved.
For more information, please contact: Fionaellis18@gmail.com
Future plans
We will be reaching out to all our members in the New Year to check in on your climate ambition progress and to find out the barriers you are currently facing. This will ensure our work in 2021 can be of genuine support you and that we can push for real progress at the leading edge of the more complex challenges that businesses face, especially in these incredibly difficult times.
In addition, you can support us by:
Declaring
Donating
Volunteering
Joining a webinar
Spreading the word — please follow us on Twitter and LinkedIn
Who will you bring on board?
Can you help connect us to another business we can help on their climate journey? Perhaps share our work with your stakeholders to encourage them to join Business Declares so we can galvanise a resounding voice from business for more urgent action?
Share the website, invite them to our next webinar or tweet about us far and wide. If everyone tells one person about our work we continue to add momentum to our cross-industry movement of climate leaders.
