Companies develop Climate Positive position together

More brands are setting the ambitious goal of becoming ’climate positive’. A group of companies have together with WWF taken the first steps to develop a framework, aiming to bring together brands who want a credible, scientific and globally accepted way of becoming a ‘climate positive’ company.

Our world is rapidly changing due to climate change. The private sector has a critical role to drive and facilitate change to significantly reduce GHG emissions, as well as to advocate for all companies and others to act in line with the Paris Agreement. Following the climate agreement in 2015, brands have started to set goals and visions of becoming climate positive. But what does it mean in reality?

Multiple discussions between the Inter IKEA Group, H&M Group and MAX Burgers AB, facilitated by WWF, has led to a first draft for a global framework.

The group now seek to engage with other corporates and relevant organizations to further develop the framework around climate positive, and more importantly; the roadmap to achieving this ambition.

The basic framework for becoming a Climate Positive company

Committing to becoming a climate positive company means to reach net negative emissions by 2040 at the latest. A company does this by reducing and physically removing more greenhouse gas emissions from the atmosphere than the whole value chain emits regardless of business growth. This includes strong advocacy for enabling policies and engagement with others to do more together.

A company committing to climate positive should:

1. Set climate targets for the entire value chain (scope 1-3) aligned with the recommendations from IPCC and the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi) to stay within the 1.5°C trajectory.
2. To advocate clear and uncompromising support to the recommendations of the Paris Agreement, IPCC, the Science Based Target Initiative (SBTi) and relevant sectoral road maps to further accelerate the movement towards a low carbon society. It also includes encouraging sustainable customer purchases and enabling necessary behavioral changes.
3. Not purchase carbon credits (i.e. “offsets”) to delay or replace any needed reductions of greenhouse gas emissions within the value chain (scope 1-3) required to reach the 1.5°C target. Carbon credit purchases should only be made in addition to such efforts to reach net negative emissions. Carbon credits should clearly be stated as a short to mid-term solution and should be reported separately. Meaningful, robust and lasting carbon removals should be realised to fulfil the climate positive ambition.

To read the full definition, click here.

Are you looking for more information or does your company want to join the initiative?
Please contact Milan Kooijman, milan.kooijman@wwf.se

Read more about how WWF works with business / the WWF H&M group partnership / the WWF IKEA partnership