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What does it mean to hold businesses accountable for climate change?

GB 22 -CDC面板

左至右的小组成员:艾米·卢斯(Microsoft),埃利斯·琼斯(Ellis Jones)(固特异),比尔·西森(Bill Sisson)(世界可持续发展世界商业委员会)和乔尔·麦克奥尔(Joel Makerower)(Greenbiz)。路易斯·布莱恩三世(Louis Bryan III)的照片

The relationship between the private sector and climate change is complicated. While business-driven economic activity creates most greenhouse gas emissions, innovative businesses also hold the solutions to prevent, mitigate and adapt to climate change and its adverse impacts on our planet and its people.

At格林比兹22,格林比斯(Greenbiz)在本月初在亚利桑那州斯科茨代尔(Scottsdale)举行的关于可持续竞彩足球app怎么下载发展业务的年度会议,公司讨论了他们如何计划并已经采取行动避免未来的气候灾难并确保气候平等和正义。在主题演讲中,格林比兹董事长兼联合创始人乔尔·麦克奥尔(Joel Makerower)在主题演讲中:“持有业务来解决气候紧急情况”,以解决气候紧急情况。”Microsoft的全球可持续发展负竞彩足球app怎么下载责人Amy Luers;以及世界可持续发展北美业务委员会执行董事比尔·西森(Bill Sisson)。

The key word on everybody’s mind? Accountability. These business leaders are thinking about the right way to approach carbon accounting, the process of quantifying emissions and climate impact and overall corporate climate accountability — holding companies to their climate commitments.

"We’re at that moment that started in Paris and found its way to Glasgow, where there’s a recognition that business needs to be more involved and represented in the climate accounting challenge," Sisson said.

气候会计仍然是一个新兴领域,缺乏针对企业的准确,标准的系统。没有这种类型的框架,几乎不可能披露排放和围绕减少的有意义的承诺。小组成员建议,碳会计和气候问责制是同一枚硬币的两个方面,对于私营部门来说,使它们正确至关重要。

Both carbon accounting and climate accountability are two sides of the same coin, and it’s crucial for the private sector to get them right.

"Corporations, once we set a goal, want to be held accountable," Jones said.

那么,正确进行公司会计并对其排放负责,该怎么办?

气候会计挑战的范围

企业碳会计基于公司财务报告,这是一个完善的框架。这种类型的审核揭示了公司的收入,花费的数量以及欠多少欠款,全部公开报告。

Holistic carbon accounting, unlike financial accounting, is often voluntary and based on voluntary standards. Governments use the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)方法to estimate their greenhouse gas emissions and removals.

But companies don’t have one standard, reliable framework — they turn to various climate accounting software applications or use the popular GHG Protocol framework. Some even develop their own methods.

卢斯说:“建立了20年以上的温室天然气库存基础设施尚未解决我们今天面临的碳会计挑战。”“我们需要能够通过产品,跨境,自然界中的产品,跨国公司之间的碳追踪碳。”

我们需要能够通过产品,跨境,自然界中的产品,跨境中的产品跟踪碳。

Determining the emissions that companies directly produce (Scope 1) is relatively straightforward, and some compliance markets such as the European Union’s Emissions Trading System do require companies to provide accurate Scope 1 carbon emissions on an asset-by-asset level. However, measuring emissions from businesses’ supply chain or users of their products (called Scope 3) becomes trickier. These measurements are largely based on assumptions.

琼斯说:“我们都受到范围3排放的挑战。”

路易斯描述了当前的碳会计系统如何失败。她继续说:“对公司的温室气体会计是不一致的,不完整且不透明的。”

路易斯呼吁“动员资源和行动,以开发可靠和可互操作的碳核算,从产品到星球……这两个词必须是我们碳问责制和碳核算工作的支柱。通过可靠性,我的意思是可访问性,准确性,准确性和consistency of the data that underpins our carbon accounting system … For interoperability, I mean the ability to exchange information between companies ... and all the way up to the scientific community that’s doing this planetary accounting."

A new framework: Corporate Determined Contributions

西森描述了他的组织,世界可持续发展的世界商业委员会一直在发展的解决方案:一个新的全球框架,建立在联合国报告国家水平排放的方法基础上 - 全国确定的贡献(NDC),描述了它的影响企业。它称这项措施公司确定的贡献(CDC)。

西森说:“我们需要联合国警察拥有的一种全球报告机制,才能成为蓬勃发展的标准。”他呼吁建立一种新的,改进的“帮助我们完成一致,可信和可比的汇总会计(三个CS)”。

According to Sisson, CDCs would reflect reported targets and progress in emissions reduction for annual assessment at the COP. They would accomplish several things:

  • 评估针对气候行动目标的业务进度和交付,以与设定和交付国家计划的过程保持一致或NDCS
  • Offer a transparent and measurable approach that would enable business to build trust with regulators, policymakers and consumers
  • Mitigate the potential for greenwashing

据Sisson称,该框架不仅可以帮助公司了解他们直接和间接生产的排放,还可以帮助他们通过标准化的测量和报告来确定可行的目标。

Ellis agreed in principle: "The more consistent data, the more reliable, the more auditable, the more our leaders feel that this [carbon accounting] is part of our business."

赶上我们所有的coverage of GreenBiz 22.

路易斯指出,这种新型范式非常需要。“我们今天正在建造的碳会计结构是我们需要依靠的,以集体管理我们如何花费剩余的碳预算,以及我们如何使用地球给我们的有限碳去除能力。”

她对解决这些挑战保持乐观。她说:“传统上,很难将这些行星真理与我们在公司中的碳会计中放入的书籍中的内容联系起来。”"But that’s changing. New data streams, advances in scientific understanding, [artificial intelligence], cloud computing, are allowing us to connect those dots in ways that we couldn’t before. It's not there today, but we need to accelerate where that’s coming and we can make that happen."

How to hold businesses accountable for their emissions

有了正确衡量排放和报告的框架,公司将能够对自己的气候承诺负责。政府和公众也能够使他们更加负责。

埃利斯谈到固特异的可持续发展计划时说:“当我们谈论气候时,我们定义了获胜。”竞彩足球app怎么下载"We know what we’re trying to achieve. Now we’re aligning the globe around winning. We’re creating this line of sight for everyone that says, ‘here’s my contribution to winning.’ I see this as the next obvious step when we talk about accountability …T他了解到,您可以从相同的测量量表中看到每个人,每个人都了解其成就方式,帮助其他不知道如何到达那里的人。”

我们的碳计数的最终真实来源是地球。

路易斯同意并详细阐述了微软的责任任务。微软最近宣布了一项名为The Carbon Call, which aims toimprove carbon accounting, expand reporting and overall boost accountability.

卢斯说:“我们正在动员公司致力于以年度和透明的方式报告温室气体排放和消除。”

She continued: "The ultimate source of truth for our carbon counting is the planet. It's our planetary carbon accounting system, which, whether we like it or not, tracks how humanity is spending down our remaining carbon budget. What do I mean by that? The amount of greenhouse gases that we can emit to the atmosphere without crossing catastrophic climate thresholds."

Like Luers, Sisson wants to direct this growing urgency around climate change into meaningful action. "We all know what we need to achieve by 2050, by 2030," he said.

他补充说:“我们了解我们需要缩小的差距。”“这可以推动法规。这可以推动业务绩效。这可以驱动和加速规模和范围。当我们意识到我们需要做多少时,这会创造动力。”

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