Safe climate, sound business
An action agenda
by , , , and -A collaborative effort by General Motors, the World Resources Institute, Monsanto, and British Petroleum addresses how the Earth's climate can be protected while expanding global economic prosperity.
Key Findings
Executive Summary
SCSB partners are already taking steps to focus on the issue of climate change because it is important not only that we understand the issues but also that we understand and control our own emissions.
We have made a joint commitment to follow our own recommendations and to work together toward the adoption of the recommendations for governments.
- British Petroleum. The SCSB initiative builds on BP's climate change commitments.
- General Motors. General Motors understands that economic, environmental, and social objectives must be integrated into daily business decisions and future planning activities.
- Monsanto. As a life sciences company with expertise in agricultural systems, Monsanto businesses depend on healthy ecological systems.
- World Resources Institute. For 15 years, WRI has been working on climate change and promoting economically sound solutions to the world's policymakers through our research and institute-wide actions.
About the collaboration
British Petroleum, General Motors, Monsanto, and the World Resources Institute take climate change seriously and have worked together to build a vision of the future that leads to both economic and environmental security for society.
We undertook this project because we are already engaged in dialogue on sustainable development, and we agreed that our discussions should extend to climate change.
We believe that finding common ground and understanding differences among business, government, and environmental interests are critical to ensure both a safe climate and a sound business outcome.
We have explored a variety of aspects to help us understand the nature of the challenge and possible policy responses.
We looked at scenarios to meet future world energy demand that show increasing and stabilizing greenhouse gas concentrations, we explored new technologies and potential business opportunities, and we discussed government policies and how they could encourage businesses and consumers to respond. Furthermore, we identified actions that each of us could take to make progress.
We believe it is important to maintain a robust economy in order to realize the aspirations of business, labor, and citizens throughout the world. Although addressing climate change will be a challenge, we believe that there should be no inherent conflicts between economic development and a healthy environment.
This notion is the crux of sustainable development and premise of our Safe Climate, Sound Business collaboration.