Corporates sign UN charter on reducing carbon emissions
09 Jul 2007
Mumbai:
Over 150 companies, including drugmakers Novartis
and Pfizer and mining giants Anglo American and Rio Tinto,
have pledged to reduce carbon emissions from their operations
in a voluntary pact.
Airbus, Coca-Cola, home furnishing major IKEA and luxury
goods specialist LVMH were also among the 153 firms who
committed themselves to greater energy efficiency.
Top environmentalists welcomed the companies'' promise
to undertake "practical actions" to reduce their
contribution to global warming, despite the lack of binding
targets and urged governments also to do more to confront
climate change.
Rajendra Pachauri, chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel
on Climate Change, said he hoped more of the 3,000 businesses,
which have signed up to a United Nations corporate responsibility
drive, would also adopt the measure.
"You need a group of pioneers who get things going,"
he told a news conference in Geneva, where more than 1,000
corporate and government leaders met this week for a summit
of the UN Global Compact. "These are some of the
leaders who would inspire several others in the business."
"A company which signs this is making some fairly
far-reaching commitments vis-a-vis its shareholders, vis-a-vis
the public, and vis-a-vis consumers, never mind governments
also," Achim Steiner, head of the U.N. Environment
Programme, said.
He, however, noted that companies may take time to accede
to the "caring for climate" initiative, which
was distributed to all global compact members a few months
ago for review.
Among business majors that opted not to sign the UN Global
Compact are banks UBS and Credit Suisse; clothing retailers
Nike, Hennes & Mauritz and Gap; oil company Royal
Dutch Shell; mining group BHP Billiton; and coffee company
Starbucks.
Bjorn Stigson, president of the Geneva-based World Business
Council for Sustainable Development, said it was important
that such initiatives remain voluntary to draw more companies
into discussions on climate change and other issues.
Meanwhile,
the chief executives of Coca-Cola, Levi Strauss, Lackeby
Water Group, Nestle, SABMiller and Suez launched a "CEO
Water Mandate" project to help companies better manage
water use throughout their supply chains and help avoid
a global water crisis.