Climate Pledge adds 20 new members as London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG) becomes first global stock exchange to pledge net zero
Supermarket Iceland Foods, technology giant IBM, renewable energy powerhouse Ørsted, and Green Britain Group, the owner of green energy supplier Ecotricity and the Forest Green Rovers football club, are among the latest cohort of companies to sign up to the Climate Pledge, joining a growing coalition of businesses that have committed to achieving net zero emissions by 2040.
E-commerce giant Amazon and NGO Global Optimism announced this morning the coalition they founded had grown to 53 members, after adding 20 new companies to its fold earlier this month.
Amazon founder Jeff Bezos said uniting disparate companies behind a common goal would catalyse the innovation and thinking needed to rapidly reduce global carbon emissions.
“The Climate Pledge is helping to spur companies from every industry and of every size to set ambitious sustainability commitments and work together to help solve the complex challenges of climate change,” he said. “Only when we sign up to a common goal, and rapidly invent and adopt low-carbon technologies, will we drive the necessary change throughout the global economy to save the planet for future generations.”
British food producer Cranswick Ltd, US flooring company Interface, home security equipment company Johnson Controls, and Spanish infrastructure developer Acciona are also among the latest batch of inductees.
After taking nine months to secure its first three corporate signatories, membership of Amazon’s Climate Pledge has ballooned over the last six months. Software giant Microsoft, consumer goods multinational Unilever, Coca Cola’s largest bottler Coca Cola European Partners, ride sharing platform Uber, and electric vehicle start-up Rivian have all joined the scheme since last December.
The Climate Pledge’s expansion comes in the same week that the London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG) unveiled plans to slash its direct emissions by almost half by 2030, as it became the first global stock exchange to commit to delivering net zero emissions through the Business Ambition for 1.5C coalition.
LSEG said it would develop “ambitious, SBTi-aligned (Science Based Targets initiative-aligned) targets designed to limit temperature rise to 1.5C” and had become a member of the United Nations Climate Change’s ‘Race To Zero’ campaign. It also confirmed that it would set Scope 3 targets covering its value chain emissions by 2025.
Nigel Topping, high level action champion for the COP26 climate summit, said LSEG’s influence over capital markets gave it a significant role to play in the transition towards a net zero economy. “LSEG with its data and analytics, post-trade and exchange businesses sits at the centre of capital markets which is why today’s announcement is so powerful,” he said. “Not only is LSEG committing to net zero in its own operations and supply chain but critically is committing to playing its role in the transition to net zero of the marketplace through its influence with investors and issuers.”
LSEG also confirmed that it had launched a new transition bond segment within its sustainable bond market that will display debt instruments from issuers who can demonstrate a “robust and credible transition strategy”.
“Financial markets infrastructure plays a core role in enabling the transition to a net zero economy,” said LSEG chief executive officer David Schwimmer. “The focus on incorporating sustainable investment strategies has only increased during the Covid-19 pandemic and LSEG is committed to playing a leading role.”
The new segment will join the green, social sustainability, sustainability-linked and green revenues bond segments on the exchange’s sustainable bond market, LSEG said.