The consultancy firm has released its assessment of nine action plans that have been created for nine different sectors by the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD), as part of its Low Carbon Technology Partnerships initiative.

The plans are the result of a series of roundtables that have taken place over the past year, where businesses like Unilever, Ikea, BP, Ford, Heineken and Nestle worked together to develop a roadmap to decarbonisation.  

The nine sectors covered by the plans include renewables, carbon capture and storage (CCS), energy efficiency in buildings, cement, chemicals, low-carbon transport fuels, climate smart agriculture and low-carbon freight.

For example, the renewables plan aims to deploy 1.5 TW of additional renewable energy capacity by 2025, through scaling green bond finance, boosting corporate renewable energy procurement and deploying low-carbon microgrids.

Similarly, the CCS plan aims for the deployment of 500-1,000 CCS projects which could store one gigatonne of carbon dioxide a year by 2030. This deployment would be funded by a price on carbon or an “equivalent policy”.

The plans are all led and driven by businesses, but ask for “appropriate policy support” from governments.

Members of the Low Carbon Technology Partnerships initiative

Ambition

In its analysis, released today (3 November), PWC estimated that the successful realisation of the plans would deliver two-thirds of necessary carbon reductions, drive up to $10trn of investment into low-carbon sectors of the global economy by 2030 and create up to 45 million jobs.

Speaking in London today, PwC’s sustainability & climate change director Jonathan Grant said: “Limiting global warming to below two degrees will have substantial economic benefits in the long term, but smart, targeted policies at a national level are needed to help achieve this ambition.

“The deal in Paris must give business the certainty and ambition to invest in these opportunities for the long term. It’s clear from our analysis that business has both a critical role to play in achieving national level targets, and has a major opportunity to grasp.  

Leadership

The report was welcomed by the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).

UNFCC executive secretary Christiana Figueres said: “I would like to commend the WBCSD for their extraordinary leadership in bringing so many progressive companies together to deliver ever high levels of climate ambition now and over the years to come.

“The analysis presented today – just weeks before the UN climate conference in Paris – underlines potential levels of emission reductions that are truly game-changing in terms of the support they provide to governments and international aspirations to keep a global temperature rise this century below two degrees.

“The number of companies but also cities moving towards a low carbon world is of level, range and scope that is unprecedented. Paris offers an opportunity for more companies to come on board in order to accelerate a transition that has now become inevitable and irreversible.”

Brad Allen

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