March 2009: Ireland's CEOs Call for New Approach to Climate Change

Ireland's CEOs Call for New Approach to Climate Change

Business in the Community Ireland issues report to Government on the business response to climate change

Monday, 9th March: Business in the Community Ireland (BITCI) - the country's leading corporate responsibility advisory group - today launched ‘Green Ireland: The Business of Climate Change', a report highlighting the need for transformational change in Ireland in order to address climate change.

This report was issued to the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government, John Gormley, T.D., today at a breakfast meeting attended by CEOs from some of Ireland's largest companies including ESB, KPMG, Vodafone, Eirgrid, NTR , Oracle EMEA., BT, An Post, Bord na Mona and Smurfit Kappa.

Business in the Community Ireland hopes that the report will help stimulate greater leadership and collaboration between business and Government in order to deliver the low carbon economy of the future and secure Ireland's economic competitiveness.

“I welcome this report and look forward to working with corporate Ireland, as business has a huge role to play in tackling the major and increasingly urgent issue of climate change”, commented Minister Gormley.

Today's report is the outcome of a forum on climate change which took place last October. The chairperson of BITCI, Kieran McGowan, convened the CEO Forum on Climate Change where over 80 CEOs of Ireland's top companies met and discussed the challenges and opportunities Ireland faces in relation to climate change.

The Forum was intended to be a tipping point for action, to inform and inspire Irish business leaders to make real commitments in taking this agenda forward after the event.

The ‘Green Ireland: The Business of Climate Change' report summarises the key issues and ideas raised at the Forum and importantly the actions that leading Irish companies are taking to mitigate their greenhouse gas emissions and adapt to the risks and opportunities presented by climate change. Irish businesses have already made significant progress in responding to climate change. The key findings of the report which included a survey of over 45 of Ireland's biggest companies are:

• 73% of companies said YES they are measuring their greenhouse gas emissions
• 86.1% of companies invest in, or have plans to invest in products and services that are designed to minimize or adapt to the effects of climate change
• 68.6% of companies have a Board committee or other executive body with overall responsibility for climate change

Leading companies have picked the low hanging fruit and are now searching for ‘transformational initiatives' that will allow them to deliver step change reductions in their greenhouse gas emissions performance and in the emissions associated with their supply chains or the use and disposal of their products.

To achieve this, Business requires a clear long-term policy framework and an enabling environment to innovate, invest and drive Ireland's transformation into a low carbon economy.

“Our hope is that this report provides an informative and relevant contribution on the business response to climate change and will stimulate, assist and inform the debate and thinking on the transformational changes required to move Ireland towards a low carbon economy. Leadership and collaboration are needed to secure a competitive, prosperous and sustainable Ireland of the future”, said Kieran McGowan, Chairperson BITCI.

Tina Roche, CEO, Business in the Community Ireland, added: “We believe in one central premise - business action on climate change is needed urgently and a strong corporate response must be part of the solution.”

“Sticking our heads in the sand and hoping that the issue of climate change will go away is simply not an option. We need to be thinking about the creation of a new transformational approach to climate change, involving a mutually beneficial partnership between business and government, which will be in the long term interest of current and future generations,” she said.

The report is available here

For further information contact:
Moira Horgan
Business in the Community Ireland
Mobile : 086 172 2105
Email : mhorgan@bitc.ie