Chief executive Paul Polman said governments must set clear CO2 targets to force low-carbon innovation.
Speaking
ahead of a business climate summit in Paris this week, he urged fellow
chief executives to help create a “political licence” for politicians to
promote clean energy.
But firms dependent on cheap fossil fuel energy are unlikely to agree.
“It’s
clear that, increasingly, the business community is aware of the costs
of climate change. Momentum is swinging towards people realising that we
need to take urgent action to stay below two degrees [increase in
global average temperature],” Mr Polman told BBC News.
Economic threat?
He
said there had been a "long dance" between politicians and chief
executives over who should take the lead on cutting emissions.
“There
was a belief among some politicians that the main challenge is job
creation and economic growth, and if we get side-tracked with climate we
might not achieve the economic growth.
"The reality is, if we don’t tackle climate change we won’t achieve economic growth.”
Mr
Polman said Unilever had faced business costs €300m-to-€400 million
(£216m-to-£316m) higher than normal due to extreme weather.
Along
with Virgin’s Richard Branson and vehicle industrialist Ratan Tata, he
is in a group called The B Team, which urges governments to bring
greenhouse gas emissions to zero by the middle of the century.
This
group will form a strong presence at the business summit, which is
expected to attract more than 1,000 people to Paris. The French capital
is also the location for the world leaders’ climate summit in December.
'Risk issue'
Another
group in Paris, RE100, will announce new members today. It is aiming to
encourage 100 world-leading firms to obtain 100% of their energy from
renewable sources.
Nick Mabey, who runs the green think tank E3G,
said: “We’ve seen the underpinnings of climate politics grow. Now we
have a $5tn (£3.1tn) low carbon economy.
"We have the G20
discussing the risks to financial markets from climate policy and a real
understanding of how climate change is hitting countries and cities.
And in the end it’s the politics of the real economy that’s going to
drive action.
“With firms, it’s moved from being something you
did for corporate social responsibility. Now it’s a risk issue for every
major company.”
The World Bank's climate chief, Rachel Kyte, told
BBC News: “There’s really a conversation beginning between business and
government about what are the conditions necessary in the economy for
us to grow in a cleaner direction.
“The message to fiscal policy
managers and CEOs [chief executive officers] is they have to understand
this is the direction of travel.
"To be a first mover working out
how to be competitive in an economy which has less carbon in it… that
is the stuff of business.”
Fossil fans
But for every CEO who makes promises in Paris this week, others will warn against a rush away from CO2.
America’s fossil fuel giants, the Koch Brothers, are spending $900 million on political advertising to make their case.
Fossil fuel advocates, in organisations like the Global Warming
Policy Foundation, argue that developing countries need cheap energy to
lift their people out of poverty. They claim fears for the climate are
exaggerated.
Oil company Shell meanwhile, acknowledges the threat
from climate change, but is planning for strong demand for oil and gas
for decades to come.
Whilst public research and development
promotes renewables - like solar, wind and hydro - private investment
still focuses on making fossil fuels cheaper.
Polly Courtice, who
runs the Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership, says it is
hard to gauge how many firms are willing to embrace a low-carbon agenda.
“The general awareness that climate change is an issue to be addressed is much more firmly embedded than before," she said.
"Most
of the firms we work with have emissions targets built in to their
plans, which certainly wasn’t the case back in 2009 [at the Copenhagen
climate summit].
"Whether the targets are ambitious enough is another matter.”
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