Alliance of CEO Climate Leaders open letter for world leaders at WEF24

We need transformative policies and actions to stand a chance of winning the race.

Over one hundred CEOs from the Alliance of CEO Climate Leaders, representing $4 trillion in revenues and 12 million employees, share an open letter to world leaders ahead of COP28.

Limiting the average global temperature increase to 1.5C is at risk of slipping out of reach unless there is a rapid increase in public-private collaboration and action to accelerate emission reductions across global value chains. Our alliance members have made individual emission reduction targets amounting to an estimated 1.0 Gt CO2e by 2030 – as sustained human action to eliminate greenhouse gas emissions has the potential to alter society’s course on climate. However, success is dependent on government support to overcome the following challenges:

• Complex and lengthy regulatory and administrative processes that slow the development of renewable energy projects and hinder the uptake of green and enabling solutions
• Lack of suitable grid infrastructure with power networks unprepared to adequately integrate an increasing share of renewable energy
• Technological constraints that delay efforts to scale up manufacturing capacity of early-stage decarbonization solutions
• Limited harmonization and interoperability between reporting standards that diverge across sectors and jurisdictions

Addressing these challenges will help maximize the impact of private sector ambition and action, therefore our asks to regulatory and policy-makers are to:

While global investment in renewable energy reached a record $0.5 trillion in 2022, this is still less than a third of the annual investment needed towards 2030 ¹. Governments should therefore rapidly scale up renewable energy and invest in the required grid infrastructure including energy storage and supporting supply chains, also to increase private sector capital. We call on governments to complement this with stronger investments, policies and targets that enable the private sector to improve its energy efficiency.

The International Energy Agency estimates that global fossil fuel subsidies for consumption increased to an all-time high of $1 trillion in 2022. This is the wrong trajectory. Governments should phase out fossil fuel subsidies in a just and equitable way. Focus should be on funding clean energy and bio-based solutions through incentives such as the US Inflation Reduction Act and the EU Net Zero Industry Act, and the reskilling of workers in the energy transition.

In addition, cumbersome permitting processes are slowing down decarbonization efforts. The latest estimates show that build time for utility-scale solar and wind projects ranges from four to 10 or more years, depending on the geography ². Policy change is needed to accelerate renewable energy projects and infrastructure while respecting a just transition, local communities and environmental standards.

Public procurement is a significant share of GDP; 14% in the EU alone ³. The scale of this spending power could exert considerable influence in reducing emissions. If 14% of an economy adopts low-emitting procurement practices, this will send a strong market signal to suppliers to improve their products and services and can facilitate the uptake of breakthrough solutions. We call on governments to set ambitious, science-based procurement targets to create demand drivers and support the development of supply chains.

While it can never replace mitigation efforts, investments in technology and nature-based carbon removal must accelerate given the increasing risk of overshooting 1.5C. Governments should therefore set appropriate carbon-removal targets, include them in their nationally determined contributions (NDCs) and National Biodiversity Strategies and Action Plans (NBSAPs) and develop supportive regulation for the conservation and regeneration of existing carbon sinks.

In addition, they should incentivize corporate investments through an enabling regulatory environment and carbon markets. This includes high-quality credits and a carbon-pricing approach reflecting the true costs of climate change.

We recognize the importance of strengthening and streamlining reporting standards and acknowledge their positive impact on climate action. For global companies, harmonized disclosure and measuring standards are essential in providing high-quality and transparent information while ensuring efficiency. We call on all standard-setters, including the International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB), the European Commission and the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and other regulators, to continue to harmonize reporting requirements and ensure interoperability and reciprocity.

In addition to calling on global policy-makers to act, we call on fellow business leaders to join us and raise their ambition by setting science-based targets and increasing the transparency of their emissions by publicly disclosing emissions data through entities such as CDP. Companies should engage their suppliers and customers to advance emission reductions across the full value chain.

The private sector needs to continuously increase its investments in energy efficiency, carbon reduction and technology- and nature-based removals. This collective action will not only amount to a meaningful contribution to global climate goals but will also drive sustainable value – the energy transition alone is expected to create an additional 51 million jobs by 2030 ⁴.

Deeper collaboration in the areas of greatest impact between business and government is needed to accelerate our net-zero actions for the benefit of society, public health and the global economy – following a just transition pathway.

The Alliance of CEO Climate Leaders believes these policy changes can drive outsized impact and is ready to present these to policy-makers at COP28 and beyond.

Link to Open Letter and signatories on WEF platform.