Chairman of Qatar Chamber and ICC Qatar, Sheikh Khalifa bin Jassim Al Thani
Doha: A coalition of major organisations yesterday launched a ground breaking one-stop-shop climate action platform for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to curb carbon emissions, build business resilience and gain competitive advantage.
The SME Climate Hub, co-hosted by the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC), was launched at the 2020-edition of New York Climate Week by Exponential Roadmap Initiative, We Mean Business coalition and the United Nations Race to Zero campaign.
“The SME Climate Hub is a flagship initiative aimed at helping small and medium-sized enterprises reduce carbon emissions and increase their competitiveness through adopting innovative green solutions.
"SMEs commitment to this initiative will mainly contribute to curbing climate change and at the same time will benefit these companies by reducing costs, increasing their competitiveness and developing their businesses”, said Sheikh Khalifa bin Jassim Al Thani, Chairman of Qatar Chamber (QC) and ICC Qatar.
The SME Climate Hub will encourage small and medium-sized companies to commit to halving greenhouse gas emissions before 2030 and reaching net-zero emissions before 2050. SMEs making this commitment, which will be globally recognized by the United Nations Race to Zero campaign, will be able to take advantage of accessible tools and resources to help them reduce emissions and build business resilience.
The platform will couple these tailored resources with opportunities for businesses to unlock direct commercial incentives.
Despite making up approximately 90 percent of business worldwide and employing over two billion people, SMEs have been largely underserved by climate action initiatives to date. In establishing the SME Climate Hub, the co-hosts of the platform see an opportunity to enable emissions reductions at large scale, and, in doing so, build bottom-up resilience to climate risks in essential global supply chains.
“Addressing climate change has never been so business critical. We are delighted to partner with like-minded organisations to bring to life the SME Climate Hub and help support the companies that make up the backbone of our global economy, in the face of the increasing risks of climate change. We want to make it as easy as possible for small and medium-sized businesses to protect and grow their business,” said John W H Denton AO, Secretary- General of the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC).
Recognizing that the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic have disrupted small businesses throughout the world, the initiative will place a strategic emphasis on enabling SMEs to leverage climate action as a means of winning and retaining business, reducing costs, enhancing access to capital and increasing business preparedness to external shocks.
Several major multinational corporations, including Ericsson, IKEA, Telia, BT Group and Unilever, that have set targets to reach net-zero emissions in their value chains have committed to support the SME Climate Hub through a new “1.5°C Supply Chain Leaders” group. These companies have made a firm commitment to include climate-related targets and performance in their supplier purchasing criteria, and to work hand in hand with the SMEs in their supply chain to deliver net-zero greenhouse emissions before 2050. They will also provide concrete tools, share knowledge and exchange best practices for implementing robust climate strategies through the SME Climate Hub.
