Unilever, Google and Amazon among new Business Alliance to Scale Climate Solutions

Verified methodologies will be developed to ensure investment supports social and environmental improvements

The businesses have joined together with the Environmental Defense Fund, the UN Environment Programme, and WWF to form the Business Alliance to Scale Climate Solutions (BASCS).

BASCS members, which also include Disney, Google and Workday, will aim to create a central platform to move corporate investment into climate solutions from a siloed process into a collaborative and scalable movement.

Members of the new alliance will seek to work collaboratively to catalyse investments into projects and solutions that can reduce emissions and remove existing atmospheric carbon across value chains.

Verified methodologies will be developed to ensure investment supports social and environmental improvements. Global sustainable business organisation BSR will act as Secretariat for BASCS.

Amazon’s vice president of worldwide sustainability Kara Hurst said: “As part of our commitment to The Climate Pledge, Amazon is on our way to achieving net-zero carbon emissions by 2040, which is good for the planet, people and our business.

“We remain focused on driving decarbonization strategies throughout our business, as well as investing in additional and quantifiable natural climate solutions to remove carbon and tackle climate change. We look forward to continuing to work across sectors with BASCS to accelerate the transition to a low-carbon economy.”

The IPCC estimates that achieving a low-carbon transition will require $1.6-$3.8trn annually between 2016 and 2050 for the supply-side energy system alone.

Amazon has notably committed to investing at least $2bn (£1.6bn) in smaller firms creating technologies or services aimed at reducing carbon emissions to net-zero.

The investment is entitled ‘The Climate Pledge Fund’, a homage to Amazon’s own global sustainability strategy, launched last year and headlined by a 2040 net-zero target. Organisations developing carbon removal technologies, nature-based carbon markets and electric vehicle (EV) innovations have all benefitted from the initiative to date.

Elsewhere, Salesforce recently unveiled a new cloud-based hub that enables companies of all sizes to track and measure value chain emissions. Salesforce is working with 250 of its top suppliers, representing 60% of the company’s Scope 3 emissions, to encourage them to set science-based targets by 2024. Salesforce has its own 1.5 degree Science Based Target. 

Salesforce’s head of sustainability Patrick Flynn said: “The time for climate action is now. Every business, government and individual must step up to the urgent challenge of climate change and to create an inclusive and sustainable future for all.

“At Salesforce we believe that business can be one of the greatest platforms for change. That is why we are proud to be a founding member of BASCS, an initiative to rapidly scale and improve climate solutions funding from businesses.”

Matt Mace