Executives from more than 75 companies traveled to Capitol Hill last month to urge Congress to take action on climate change by supporting a price on carbon. The effort, dubbed LEAD on Carbon Pricing by Ceres (the organization I work for), brought together companies that represented a combined market value of $2.5 trillion and employ over 1 million U.S. workers.

The corporate call for congressional action comes as the urgency grows to achieve the goals of the Paris Agreement, including a new aim to keep average global temperature rise to no more than 1.5-degrees Celsius, where the science says the results of warming would be less catastrophic. Here in the U.S., natural disasters — including devastating wildfires, droughts, storms and floods — are already racking up more than $300 billion a year in unnecessary costs. That’s in part why thousands of investors and companies are taking action, while the Trump administration takes steps to pull the U.S. out of the historic accord and roll back regulations intended to decrease greenhouse gas emissions.

More than 75 executives joined Ceres for a lobby day on Capitol Hill on May 22, 2019. In this photo (from L to R): Hugh Welsh, DSM North America; Francois Goulet, Rossignol Skis; the author; Melanie Mills, Colorado Ski Country; Nick Sargent, Snowsports Industries America. (Courtesy of Ceres)

Companies are also taking steps to reduce their own emissions. Big corporations, including Capital One, Etsy, Johnson & Johnson, Nike and Unilever are among the 170 companies that have committed to sourcing 100% of their electricity from renewable sources. Levi Strauss & Co, Mars, Seventh Generation, Salesforce and more than 200 other companies have set science-based targets to reduce their emissions.

These companies understand the economic risks of a changing climate for their operations, supply chains, employees and the communities they serve. But it’s clear that a surge in corporate commitments alone won’t be enough. Last year in the U.S., economy-wide greenhouse gas emissions increased.

We need leadership and action from all levels of government, including a price on carbon at the federal level. Economists agree that a carbon price has the potential to be the most cost-efficient and effective tool to reduce carbon emissions at the pace and scale required to tackle climate change. Companies support a price on carbon as a way to swiftly reduce emissions and protect themselves against the financial risks of climate change.