CLIMATE CHANGE: EVERYONE'S BUSINESS

28 November 2007

Author:
A report from the CBI Climate Change Task Force

Abstract:
The next two or three years will be critical. A much greater sense of urgency is required if the UK is to meet its targets for reducing greenhouse gas emissions at an affordable cost, and to establish an international leadership role in the low carbon economy of the future.

The CBI’s Climate Change Task Force has spent 10 months analysing this challenge. It is made up of business leaders from key sectors of the UK economy and whose companies globally employ nearly 2 million people, generating annual revenues of approximately £1000bn.

Informed by a major study commissioned from McKinsey, the Task Force has assessed the economic benefits and costs of different options for reducing greenhouse gas emissions, focusing on what needs to be done by 2030 to be on track for the government’s 2050 target.

Changes on the scale needed and at affordable cost will only happen if government, business and consumers work together. Government cannot do the job by itself, nor can business: but together we can use our position as one of the world’s great trading nations to secure global action.

G24i reading scale:
Non-technical