Today, we have
six industry leaders here to debate
whether the corporate sector is the most
important actor in advancing energy
efficiency,
decarbonisation, clean electricity, heat
and mobility.
I must warn the opposition that in
apollo LinkedIn, 83%
of people agreed with the motion. So... good
luck to you guys today!
Interested to see your points. Supporting
the motion today
firstly is Carlos Sanchez. Carlos is
global manager for the environment at Philip
Morris International.
He has been a climate advisor for 18
years and is a passionate campaigner for
corporate sustainability
even running his own website and blog.
Now, thank you claire for
the introduction and thank you Sarah
and the Energy Council
for organizing this debate. I will try to
start
with a question. So, if the corporate
sector is not to lead
this transition then who? I believe
and I will try to give my reasons on why
I believe
that today. Of course, we're going to have
a thought-provoking
debate. But I'm actually
inclined to believe that it's the
corporate sector that should be driving
this
because of three reasons. First,
it's because carbon neutrality is
becoming embedded into our companies.
Second, it's because the corporate sector has
the resources and tools to make it
happen.
And third, it's because the capacity that
the corporates have to influence
the other sectors and make them
achieve the degree of decarbonisation
we want to have.
So, very quickly, the first one is about
carbon neutrality. So, we all know that
climate change is one of the biggest
threats
humanity has ever faced. And we know that
the intergovernmental panel for
climate change has said 2050
the deadline that we need to be carbon
neutral.
This, I have seen more and more companies
incorporating  carbon neutrality
in the last five-six years
after the Paris agreement
and with the push of the SDGs.
And as an example,  you have 155 companies
today
worth 2.43 billion that have aligned
their targets to latest climate science
in the science-based target initiative. I
believe that the reasons for companies
to do this is,
first of all, to reduce the climate
related risks that we are facing.
Second, it is also cost, and this is not bad
because sustainability has to be related
with
being operational excellent. And the last
one, it
is to, of course, attract investors
and talent to work with our companies.
And I believe these incentives are
self-reinforcing and are making more and
more companies to
jump into the carbon neutrality journey.
So, it's not more
anymore about corporate sustainability
reporting, it is
about embedding sustainability into
the core strategy of the company.
So, the second point it's about the tools
and resources. Companies we have
budgets, we have experts and not only
that we have access to
consultants and we have access to
universities
and R&D institutes that allow us to
source
the latest technology in terms of
climate clean technologies.
So, I think this makes companies
be able to embed into their own
strategy from the design of the products
to the sourcing
of equipment and into setting targets
something that is no longer separated
but, it is embedded in
the targets. So, that's why these
resources are making the carbon
neutrality happen in these companies.
And my last point which is not the the
smallest one,
it is about the capacity to influence other
players.
We have employees that work in our
companies that
receive trainings and and are aware
about all these
problems related to climate change and
the solutions.
We also face investors that are
interested to understand
what are we doing but, most important,
they tell us
what are the things that they want us to
be working on. So,
they ask us to be transparent to
express, share our initiatives in
platforms like CDP or MSCI for
example. So, we need to be transparent.
And also we work with suppliers. So, for
example, in PMI
we work with around more than 30 000
suppliers
and we have more than 300 000 farmers
into reducing carbon emissions.
This is extremely important into
cascading our
global corporate responsibility to other
suppliers. But, also, working with other
customers. So, I think the snowball
effect
it's really happening. Besides, also, we
work with governments
and into developing the new legislation
and also we face consumers. So,
I think this is my third point. So, as a
summary,
I believe that the corporate sector should
be driving this for the three reasons I
mentioned. So, the carbon neutrality, the
resources and influence.
And, I fully agree with you that
this cannot be alone.
There needs to be a collaboration, there
should be
information shared through debates like
this one or through social media or for
example, like my blog at
ccarlossanchez.eco. But, what is important
is that we listen and we inform our
stakeholders on how we are tackling this
problem
and what is important for them.
