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46 Autumn/Winter 2021 COP 26: GOVERNMENTS MAKING PROGRESS, BUT ONLY SERIOUS BUSINESS ACTION CAN KEEP 1.5C ALIVE SAYS CBI DIRECTOR-GENERAL A s The UK was playing host to the 26th UN Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP26) in Glasgow from October 31st to November 12th, CBI Director-General Tony Danker had a clear message to share: ‘It’s time for firms to choose – lead the way or be left behind’. Speaking at COP 26’s largest business dinner, attended by an audience of business leaders, Ministers and foreign dignitaries, CBI Director General Tony Danker told delegates that ’this is a moment in history where every firm needs to step up and lead’. The event, sponsored by the Weir Group, was deliberately timed as political leaders left Glasgow at the end of the first phase of the conference. With the exact outcome on international agreements in the balance, Danker said: “Regardless of political progress, we in business are ready, willing and able to deliver a net zero world. Bold targets or timid ones. Total agreement or partial agreement. I don’t believe any of you have come to Glasgow to give the job to someone else. This job is on us.” He also noted how leaders such as UK Prime Minister Johnson, HRH Prince of Wales and Secretary John Kerry have both broken with traditional UN consensus to look toward business to deliver the capital and ingenuity needed to achieve climate change. But this will need governments to work differently: “Governments are used to being green rule-makers. Now they must learn to become green market-makers.” Speaking about the importance of the COP26 Summit, Tony said: “Whatever its formal agreements, this COP will be best-known as the moment we reached a consensus: that Governments can’t get to Net Zero without business. And that businesses who fail to embrace Net Zero will get left behind. “Governments are making some progress at COP 26, but only serious business action can keep 1.5c alive. We cannot achieve Net Zero without clean energy to power our world, without foundational industries – from agriculture, tomining, to building shifting to sustainable ways of working, without cleaner transport, greener manufacturing, andmore sustainable products, and without technological breakthroughs in every part of the value chain, to protect nature and sustain the resources we use every day. “We cannot achieve Net Zero without markets and money that rewards those who move with the greatest boldness and deliver what they promise. We cannot achieve Net Zero without new services that make sustainable living viable, easy, and rewarding for consumers. “Our success is therefore interdependent at this COP. Where governments have made progress – such as deforestation or technological breakthroughs - companies will immediately change policies and investments to follow suit. Where governments have yet to agree, such as on carbon pricing, then the private sector cannot solve these shortcomings. Delivery will be fragmented and patchy. Misalignment in policies and standards will undermine different industry sectors reforming radically enough.” BUSINESS COMMITMENTS Tony stressed that business commitments are needed to deliver Net Zero. “This is a time for business leadership. We can’t do it without governments but nor can we wait for them to reach perfect agreement. This is a moment in history where every firmneeds to step up and lead. “For some of you I know this is a moral obligation; a commitment to business as a force for good or to leaving a sustainable legacy to future generations. “Some have described thismoment as the second industrial revolution.The first one - created here in the UK, created by us in business - brought opportunities and growth