Getty Images / anucha sirivisansuwan

For two weeks at the start of December, the United Nations met to create the "Paris Rulebook" for fighting climate change. Although they eventually agreed a plan, scientists are still sceptical that it will be enough to keep carbon pollution to safe levels.

But it is not all doom and gloom. While delegates were debating, Denmark-based shipping company Maersk, which is the largest in the industry, announced its own plans to cut its net carbon emissions to zero by 2050. The move received much less media coverage. But the industry accounts for more than two per cent of global carbon emissions.


So are businesses moving faster than politicians? Maersk’s announcement seems reflective of such a trend. For David Wei, director for climate at sustainable consultancy firm Business for Social Responsibility (BSR), the COP24 meeting did send a positive signal to businesses – concluding a common rule book, in today's global political scene, is no small feat. "Just because we set the rules of the road doesn't mean we will be driving faster," he says. "And in this case, the success lies in driving faster."

But while politicians discuss and negotiate those rules, businesses are actually stepping up. At the end of November, just before the start of the COP24, 50 major global businesses from the World Economic Forum representing $1.5 trillion in revenue (£1.19 trillion) signed an open letter calling for stronger action at COP24.

Read next China is rapidly building a world-beating wind energy revolution China is rapidly building a world-beating wind energy revolution

Thirty of the signatories have already succeeded in reducing emissions by nine per cent between 2015 and 2016 – that’s the equivalent of taking 10 million cars off the road for a year. And all of the businesses that signed agreed to urge governments to fast-track solutions to tackle climate change. The letter offered three ideas to ponder on at the talks: implementing better carbon-pricing mechanisms, providing incentive for low-carbon investments and improving education to encourage societies to shift away from high-carbon solutions.

And days before the COP24 started, British business magnate Richard Branson, the founder of the Virgin Group, said: “I’m glad businesses are committed to taking action now – it’s absurd to think governments wouldn’t do the same.”


But are they – or at least, are they taking action enough to match businesses’ expectations? For Katrien Steenmans, researcher in environmental law at the University of Surrey, the outcome of the latest COP shows that they are not. “With some of the key decisions postponed until COP25 and beyond,” she says, “governments are neither delivering faster change nor clearer signals as demanded by leading organisations from the World Economic Forum in November.”

In the context of the time-critical nature of climate change, she describes the progress made in the last two weeks as “weak” and “inadequate”. And indeed, there seems to be a gap between policy-makers and industries. Opening his talk on climate finance in the second week of the COP24, Michael Eckhart, the managing director of the American investment bank Citigroup, said: “Am I the only commercial banker in this room? We need half this room to be filled with financiers.”

It would be incorrect, however, to claim that nothing was done. A total of over £100 million was pledged overall to be allocated to the Adaptation Fund, to help developing countries adapt to climate change; as well as over £8 billion to be contributed to the Green Climate Fund, which encourages investment in low-emission development. And the proposal drafted by Michal Kurtyka, the designated president of this year’s COP, highlights the urgent need to scale up climate finance through private and public resources.

Read next Why not melt your clothes and turn them into plastic? Why not melt your clothes and turn them into plastic?

What is climate change? The definition, causes and effects Climate Change What is climate change? The definition, causes and effects


“This is crucial because we are talking about an unprecedented global transition that requires equally massive financial input,” says Megan Bowman, co-author of a study on climate finance law and associate professor at King’s College in London. “There is a multi-trillion dollar gap between where we are now and where we need to be for a low-carbon and more resilient world.” To bridge this gap, she continues, efforts should come from national law-makers as much as corporations. “It’s all hands on deck,” she says.

But when it comes to making change happen, it seems that private businesses have been a lot more proactive. Last week, while the COP24 was underway, more than 400 global investors with more than $30 trillion (£23.82 trillion) in assets called on global leaders to increase climate action, including demands to phase out coal. Meanwhile, Volkswagen announced that its next generation of combustion cars would be the last. A total of 43 fashion brands including Burberry and Adidas launched the Fashion Industry Charter for Climate Action, to address the impact of the fashion sector across its entire value chain.

In the UK, BT’s strategy to integrate renewable electricity in its supply chain was used by non-profit organisation The Climate Group as a guide for other companies to follow. The telecommunications giant has announced its goal of using 100 per cent renewable electricity by 2020, and to reduce its carbon emission intensity by 87 per cent compared to the levels it recorded in the last year. It has also started adding an “emission reduction clause” to contracts with its network suppliers, like Huawei for instance, requiring them to reduce their carbon emissions over the duration of the contract.

Gabrielle Giner, the head of environmental sustainability at BT, is far from dismissing progress made at the COP. The common rule book, she says, will drive climate action. "That said," she continues, "we need our policymakers to continue to set more ambitious targets, which will focus the minds of both business and government, allowing for deeper and faster action."

Read next This seabed coral farm is trying to save our reefs from extinction This seabed coral farm is trying to save our reefs from extinction

For David Wei, deeper and faster action will be exactly the focus of next year's COP and what, according to him, "everyone will be watching for". We are reaching a point where establishing rules is a positive step, albeit one that has to be followed with the scaling up of ambition. Something that some businesses have already put their head to.

Political turmoil may have grabbed a few headlines at the COP24, therefore, but in the meantime real action is already happening at the heart of industries. This is particularly true across the pond. As soon as US President Donald Trump announced that he would back out of the Paris Agreement last year, companies including Apple, Tesla or Facebook were quick to clarify that they would remain on the low-carbon bandwagon.

Businesses are yet to react to the outcome of the COP24. “It is a massive letdown that governments have not risen to the challenge of delivering faster change at COP24, but this should not stop others from taking action,” says Steenmans.

More great stories from WIRED

– Inside the dark web's biggest hitman-for-hire website

– How BMW's new electric powertrain torpedos Tesla


– Google is no longer the best company to work for in the UK

– How to make sense of bitcoin's unrelenting death spiral

Get the best of WIRED in your inbox every Saturday with the WIRED Weekender newsletter