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 The leaders of B Team, a coalition about 12 CEOs and policymakers
including Virgin founder Richard Branson, Unilever chief Paul Polman
and Tata International's Ratan Tata, said a global net-zero
emissions goal by 2050 will prompt businesses to embed new
investments and clean energy research into their business
strategies.
Branson told Reuters in an interview the lofty goal - one of the
options for a long-term climate goal being considered for the Paris
draft negotiating text - is "doable" with private sector help.
"The politicians in Paris need to know business is behind them
taking the right decisions and they are not going to damage the
world economically by taking these decisions," he said.
The leaders, which also included telecoms magnate Mo Ibrahim and
Huffington Post founder Arianna Huffington, made the announcement a
week before climate negotiators meet in Geneva to make progress on a
Paris draft.
A November report by the U.N. Environment Programme said governments
should phase out net carbon dioxide emissions by 2070 in order to
meet a U.N. goal of limiting average temperature rises to 2 degrees
Celsius (3.6 Fahrenheit) above levels before the Industrial
Revolution.
Net-zero emissions, or carbon neutrality, means that any carbon
dioxide emissions from burning fossil fuels should be offset, for
instance by planting forests that suck carbon from the air as they
grow.
B Team leaders said governments should agree to meet the UNEP target
20 years earlier to stave off the business risks and economic costs
of failing to keep within the 2-degree threshold needed to avoid
dangerous climate change impacts.
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The group also called on governments to set policies to price carbon
pollution, end fossil-fuel subsidies and help poor and vulnerable
communities adapt to climate change.
Branson said falling oil prices present an opportunity for
governments to make a radical shift away from fossil fuels.
"If people want to come up with clean ways of powering cars, of
powering houses - don't tax them," he said.
But the target faces headwinds ahead of the Paris summit. While
developing nations want the new pact to include the net-zero goal,
OPEC oil producers, like Saudi Arabia, fiercely oppose any phase-out
of fossil fuels.
(Reporting By Valerie Volcovici; Editing by Cynthia Osterman and
Susan Heavey)
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