At its 2022 Leaders’ Summit in Melbourne, Australia’s Business Council of Co-operatives and Mutuals has called for “an all-in commitment” to combat climate change.
The council also unveiled a Declaration of Climate Action.
Speaking during the summit, CEO Melina Morrison said “If we are to go further and faster on reducing climate-altering emissions, everybody needs to do their bit,”. “Our position paper notes that climate change is a first-order risk to the Australian environment, society and economy.”
Morrison spoke about the floods which devastated New South Wales this year as “yet one more reminder of what the future holds”. He said that the world’s best way forward is science-based, urgent and collaborative action and it needs to be bottom-up as well as top-down.
Customers-owned Bank Australia, whose managing director Damien Walsh said: “Our customers continue to select climate change as the issue they are most concerned about, is one of the declaration’s supporters.
“We all need to be more ambitious across key areas such as decarbonisation, regenerative products and services, the protection of nature, climate justice, and climate risk.”
The BCCM declaration recognises that “co-ops and mutuals can work collectively to identify the opportunities for increased prosperity and resilience from a fair and just transition to a low-carbon economy”.
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Members of the BCCM will be asked to sign the statement and promise to take concrete climate action.
Signatories are obligated by the promise to “act swiftly and proportionately in response to severe climate change – decreasing emissions to net zero before 2050 and putting in place policies to commence decarbonization as soon as practicable.”
The proclamation also outlines a sector-wide plan for collaboration to hasten net zero goals and integrate smaller organizations with the bigger ones.
David Carter, the group CEO of the Queensland-based motoring association RACQ, stated that the industry must continue to advance toward best practice frameworks.
Australia’s Business Council of Co-operatives and Mutuals has called for “an all-in commitment” to tackling climate change and launched a Declaration of Climate Action at its 2022 Leaders’ Summit in Melbourne.
Morrison pointed to the floods which devastated New South Wales this year as “yet one more reminder of what the future holds”, adding: “The world’s best way forward is science-based, urgent and collaborative action, and it needs to be bottom-up as well as top-down.”
Backers of the declaration include customer-owned Bank Australia, whose managing director Damien Walsh said: “Our customers continue to identify climate change as the issue they are most concerned about.
The BCCM declaration recognises that “co-ops and mutuals can work collectively to identify the opportunities for increased prosperity and resilience from a fair and just transition to a low-carbon economy”.
Story was adapted from the news coop.
