Caring for Climate



PATHWAYS TO LOW-CARBON & RESILIENT DEVELOPMENT
A Solutions Platform for Business Contribution to Global Climate Action

Platform Partners: UN Global Compact, UNEP, UNFCCC in cooperation with the World Resources Institute (WRI), Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI), and World Wildlife Fund (WWF)


With the Paris Agreement now in force, business and investors have a critical role to play in climate­ proofing our global economy and ensuring swift transition to a low-carbon, resilient world. Today's business leadership standards on climate change - from carbon pricing, science based targets, responsible policy engagement to adaptation and resilience - can become mainstream practice to steer a rapid transformation to keep our planet's warming to well below 2°Celsius. Now it is time for all business leaders to implement climate action deep into local markets everywhere and pioneer a new pathway forward to ensure a sustainable future for all.

Pathways to Low-Carbon & Resilient Development is a solutions platform aimed at mobilizing the private sector to become a catalyst for enhancing and deepening country-level action to meet the ambitions set out by the Paris Agreement and the sustainable development goals (SDGs). Building on the decade's work of Caring for Climate, the platform will provide companies the opportunity to make progress on scaling responsible climate action that contributes to the implementation of Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) and national SDG plans. Practically, the platform seeks to provide a safe space for companies to review, re-align, and recalibrate their corporate goals, strategies, and public policy efforts to inform and ramp up climate ambition into the development plans of governments.

Expected Objectives

* Build an alliance of frontier companies committed to redefining corporate goals or industry-specific targets that are compatible with the Paris Agreement with a view to enable ambitious NDC and SDG implementation.
* Define synergies, trade-offs and complementarity between NDCs and SDG plans in up to 7 countries and steer a process for how companies can be a force to remove barriers that hinder climate progress.
* Diffuse a package of policy recommendations for areas where business and investors can support the reformulation of NDCs to become consistent with l.5°-2°Celsius pathway.
* Shape a framework for defining the future pathway for business leadership on climate mitigation, adaptation, and finance linked with the Global Climate Action Agenda.

Country Engagement and Selection

The selection of countries will be determined through a wide partner and participant consultation in the beginning phase of the project. The project expects to identify 5-7 groupings of countries. Examples of the selection criteria include:

* Strong affinity and scope for private sector engagement in national climate and sustainable development plans
* Strength and capacity of Global Compact Local Networks, UNEP country offices and/or institutional local partner in the country
* Participating company presence, operations and/or investments in the country with clear scope to improve their climate and development goals

Benefits of Engaging

* Access to a network and community of key actors in global and country-level policies on climate change and sustainable development goals
* Opportunity to participate in a series of policy dialogues, industry-level workshops, and relevant global and national climate change conferences
* Receive practical insights, knowledge, and tools on key trends on climate policies and related impact for business and finance at the country-level
* Opportunity to contribute to key UN and international processes on climate and development
* Receive guidance on enhancing climate and development integration into corporate business planning

Get Involved

The project will commence in the first quarter of 2017. To indicate early support to the platform, please send an email to caring4climate@unglobalcompact.org.