150 global business leaders call for legally binding UN framework to tackle climate change

On 30th November 2007, the business leaders of 150 global companies published a communiqué to world leaders calling for a comprehensive, legally binding United Nations framework to tackle climate change.

The initiative represents an unprecedented coming together of the international business community and includes some of the biggest companies and brands from around the world, including the United States, Europe, Australia and China.

It has been led by The Prince of Wales’s UK and EU Corporate Leaders Groups on Climate Change, which are developed and run by the University of Cambridge Programme for Industry.

It is hoped that The Bali Communiqué will have a significant impact on the UN climate negotiations starting on December 3rd 2007 in Bali, Indonesia.

The Bali Communiqué calls for:

• a comprehensive, legally binding United Nations framework to tackle climate change
• emission reduction targets to be guided primarily by science
• those countries that have already industrialised to make the greatest effort
• world leaders to seize the window of opportunity and agree a work plan of negotiations to ensure an agreement can come into force post 2012 (when the existing Kyoto Protocol expires)

The Corporate Leaders Group on Climate Change (www.cpi.cam.ac.uk/bep/clgcc) is an initiative from the Prince of Wales’s Business and the Environment Programme. Details on the Programme and its international senior executive seminars can be found at www.cpi.cam.ac.uk/bep.