81 Major Companies Sign Climate Pledge

Barack Obama - Climate Pledge

CEOs from 81 of America’s biggest companies, including Walmart, Intel and Hershey’s, have gathered at the White House to pledge support for drastic action on climate change ahead of this year’s U.N. climate summit in Paris.

The business leaders met with President Barack Obama to sign the American Business Act on Climate Pledge, throwing their collective weight – and combined market value of USD $5 trillion – behind Obama’s call for a strong outcome to the Paris talks this November.

“As part of this initiative, each company is announcing significant pledges to reduce their emissions, increase low-carbon investments, deploy more clean energy, and take other actions to build more sustainable businesses and tackle climate change,” a White House briefing said.

The Climate Pledge was launched in July and includes company-specific goals for fighting climate change, such as Facebook’s goal to source 50 percent of its energy from renewable sources by 2018 and Intel’s pledge to triple the installation and use of on-site renewable energy for its operations by 2020.

More companies are expected to sign up to the Pledge before Paris.

“We applaud the growing number of countries that have already set ambitious targets for climate action. In this context, we support the conclusion of a climate change agreement in Paris that takes a strong step forward toward a low-carbon, sustainable future,” reads part of the American Business Act on Climate Pledge.

The White House said it had high hopes in the lead-up to Paris, with many nations already submitting post-2020 targets, but would continue to focus on building partnerships between the government and the private sector in order to drive the clean economy.

“Right now, we’ve got 81 companies who’ve signed on to what we’re calling the American Business Act on Climate Change,” said President Obama after the signing.

“They operate in all 50 states. They’ve got about 9 million employees, collectively, and about $5 trillion worth of market cap. These are some of the cutting-edge, most extraordinary businesses that we have. But it’s not just the big companies that are getting involved. It’s their suppliers and small businesses that are also getting involved — and saying, number one, we need a strong outcome in Paris.”

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