As we enter a new decade, it is clear there is no time to waste when it comes to getting a handle on slowing down climate change. Between the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (deadline 2030), demands for increased corporate liability, and growing consumer demands for more sustainable business efforts there are many efforts that could help in attaining these vital goals.
In the race to save our planet, not only are making positive changes to our own behavior and routines critical, but it’s become increasingly more obvious that holding corporations accountable for their impact on the environment is necessary. One way that this has been happening is a rise in strategic climate lawsuits against corporations. Initially these efforts were intended to hold corporations accountable for their role in generating greenhouse gas emissions that led to extreme weather events, such as storms and flooding, in order to slow onset climatic processes, such as sea level rise.
While the first cases struggled to prove the link between the actions of corporations and climate impacts, a 2014 paper by Richard Heede made a huge impact on establishing this was actually something that could be proven. The paper identified the top 90 corporations collectively responsible for 63 percent of global emissions since the Industrial Revolution, dubbing them the "carbon majors."
As the impacts of climate change continue to increase alongside advancements in climate science, it is very possible that cases seeking to hold corporations to account will succeed — maybe not in this wave of cases, but in the next, as courts incrementally begin to recognize causal links between the activities of carbon majors and weather events caused by climate change.
However, corporate liabilities are not the only challenge facing the 2030 UN agenda, climate change and public health, also received a lot of attention in last fall. The U.N. Secretary General’s Climate Summit brought together world leaders to ramp up ambition for climate mitigation. By the time the summit began, 65 countries had committed to net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 and 87 companies had joined the "Business Ambition for 1.5˚C- Our Only Future" campaign. (As of December 11, 2019 , the number had grown to 177 companies who have signed the pledge). Alongside the Climate Summit, the U.N. hosted the High Level Political Forum on Universal Health Coverage, where countries signed the Political Declaration on "On Universal Health Coverage: moving together to build a healthier world" (PDF).
Although the high-level meetings on climate change and universal health coverage were held separately, there is growing evidence that suggests these issues are interconnected.
Again, the private sector has a substantial role to play in addressing the joint challenges facing the health of people and the planet. Not only should companies be held responsible for their role in releasing greenhouse gases, but also for having suppliers in areas without access to proper sanitation and hygiene, and having employees with unhealthy diets that hamper their productivity.
In order to see improvement, it is important for the private sector to actively contribute to solving these challenges. "Especially through energy renovation of buildings, we can contribute simultaneously to addressing environmental and health concerns, to the benefit of residents and the planet," said Mirella Vitale, senior vice president for marketing, communications and public affairs at ROCKWOOL Group.
It is vital that corporations make every effort to transition their operations to present transparency. Not only in hopes that they avoid future litigation risks, but also to show they are taking climate change action seriously. Nothing will improve without buy in from individuals and businesses. Let’s make 2020 the start of a decade with powerful change.