The Step Up Declaration

The science is clear: Climate change poses an increasingly urgent and serious threat to modern society and the global economy. At the same time, addressing the climate challenge is an enormous business opportunity, with trillions of dollars in economic growth expected from investments in climate solutions. It also provides a once-in-a-generation opportunity to clean our air and water, improve our health, and ensure access to sustainable energy for all.

For the best chance of staving off the most unbearable impacts of climate change, science tells us we must bend the curve of global greenhouse gas emissions by 2020, and rapidly reduce thereafter to strive towards a fossil-fuel free society by 2050.

Within the next three decades, the Fourth Industrial Revolution — driven by digitalization such as mobile internet, cloud computing, artificial intelligence, and the Internet of Things — will transform everyone’s lives and every business on the planet. This provides a unique opportunity to accelerate the global transformation to a decarbonized future.

As some of the most innovative and influential companies in the world, we are coming together for the first time in history to create a single unified force for change.

Digitalization also continues to enable our path to increase and disclose our goals on energy efficiency, renewable energy, and carbon mitigation and the footprint of our operations. We look beyond our four walls to activate supply chains, influence political and regulatory mechanisms, push each other as peers, partners and competitors and enable and inspire our customers. Now we seek to create a step-change in corporate commitments:

With the goal of catalyzing broad and rapid progress in reducing greenhouse gas emissions worldwide. This is necessary, desirable and achievable.

We need bold action that amplifies its impact throughout our collective value chain. And we need to be held, and hold each other, accountable to rise to the greatest challenge the world has ever seen.

The undersigned are committed to accelerating progress, both in our immediate spheres of influence and collaboratively with others—  across all sectors of society, including individuals, corporations, civil society, and governments. 

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