Accenture charges stakeholders on investment opportunities in climate change

As concerns about climate change intensify, Accenture has urged stakeholders to gear up towards reducing carbon emission while accelerating actions in a bid to tackle the threat posed by climate change to businesses.

While highlighting the growth and innovation opportunities attached to efforts towards combating climate change, Accenture noted that a recent study showed that stakeholders see investment in climate solutions as essential to competitive advantage in the real sector.

Country Manager for Accenture in Nigeria, Niyi Yussuf made this call recently while analysing findings by the United Nations Global Compact-Accenture CEO Study, ‘Special Edition: A Call to Climate Action’ released recently.
The study, which was carried out using surveys conducted with CEOs of Caring for Climate participant companies, business leaders from 750 Global Compact participants, drawn from 152 countries across 41 industrysectors and participants, reported that, “91 percent of business leaders believe that climate change is an urgent priority for businesses, progress is on track to restrict global warming to less than 2 degree Celsius, while 66 percent believe business is not doing enough to tackle climate change.

“While highlighting the growth and innovation opportunities attached to efforts towards combating climate change, the study reported that 70 percent (of leaders from the world’s largest companies) see opportunities for growth and innovation, 67 percent report a clear business case for action, while 69 percent see investment in climate solutions as essential to competitive advantage.”

Amid the strong belief in the importance of urgent action, and the opportunities that action on climate change can present, the study showed that “just one-third of businessleaders surveyed believe that progressis on track to restrict global warming toless than 2 degrees Celsius (2C)—and justone-third believe that companies in theirindustry are doing enough.”

Yusuf, therefore, said: “Climate change is a momentous threat to development, to peace and security, and to market stability. While the pace of action by governments, businesses and society at large has increased, our efforts, individually and collectively, must be accelerated further if the threat of catastrophic climate change is to be removed effectively. It is with this in mind thatwe renew our call to the business community to make a lastingcommitment to climate action now.”

He also added that it will require enabling action on the part of governments and policymakers in order to unlock the potential of the private sector.

According to him, joint efforts will result in great results as business leaders are moving toinnovate climate solutions and adoptlow-carbon business models, while companies in every region and in everyindustry sector are already realizingopportunities for growth and innovationin addressing the climate challenge.