London Mayor Sadiq Khan, IKEA CEO Jesper Brodin and Diageo CEO Ivan Menezes speak at day one of Reuters IMPACT
Day one of Reuters IMPACT launched in London with a packed schedule of business leaders, politicians and forward-thinking pioneers discussing how organizations can drive action and accelerate innovation towards the climate emergency.
Some of the many notable speakers today included London Mayor Sadiq Khan, UN Global Compact Executive Director Sanda Ojiambo, IKEA CEO Jesper Brodin, Diageo CEO Ivan Menezes, UN PRI CEO David Atkin and Shell EVP Anne Mascalo.
On the second day of Reuters IMPACT tomorrow, you can expect to hear from COP 26 CEO Peter Hill; Bezos Earth Fund CEO Andrew Steer; Finland Finance Minister Annika Saarikko; Meta’s EMEA Vice President Angie Gifford; UN Convention on Biological Diversity Executive Secretary Elizabeth Mrema; British businesswoman, TV personality and ambassador to the World Wildlife Fund Deborah Meaden; Rolls Royce CEO Warren East; the Climate Group CEO Helen Clarkson; Climate Investment Funds CEO Mafalda Duarte; European Investment Bank President Werner Hoyer; and Great Britain SailGP Team and INEOS Britannia CEO Sir Ben Ainslie.
Take a look below at news highlights from today’s forum:
London mayor Sadiq Khan urges green investment, snipes at Truss policies
The mayor of London urged business leaders on Monday to invest in climate solutions, saying the British capital would need another 75 billion pounds ($84.05 billion) in investment to meet its climate goals. Noting infrastructure crippled by extreme heat to homes damaged in wildfires, Sadiq Khan warned that “no one will be able to claim with any credibility that we were not given fair warning.” Taking aim at the new conservative government of Prime Minister Liz Truss, the mayor said that “while the doors of Whitehall might be closing to climate action, the doors of City Hall will remain wide open for as long as I’m in office.”
Reducing energy waste key to meeting climate goals
Embracing decentralised power grids may be the way forward in building out renewable energy capacity to reach global climate goals, the CEO of investment firm Sustainable Development Capital said on Monday. Speaking on a panel at the Reuters IMPACT sustainability conference in central London, Jonathan Maxwell said U.S. electricity challenges showed a need to “focus on decentralisation”. “Let’s generate (electricity) locally or on site so we don’t waste energy somewhere between conversion and transmission, distribution and end use,” Maxwell said, answering a question from Arctic Basecamp founder Gail Whiteman about lessons learned in the green transition.
IKEA’s home deliveries will be fully electric by 2025, CEO says
IKEA’s home deliveries will be made by electric vehicles by 2025 as part of a target at the world’s No.1 furniture brand to drastically reduce greenhouse gas emissions over the next eight years, CEO Jesper Brodin said on Monday. In an interview at the Reuters IMPACT conference, Brodin said some cities were already fully electric for home deliveries, and many were working hard to build the infrastructure needed.
Diageo CEO Menezes says Scotland water security a ‘threat’
Johnnie Walker scotch whisky maker Diageo PLC’s CEO Ivan Menezes believes Scotland could face a water shortage in the next 10 to 20 years due to climate change, he said at the Reuters Impact conference on Monday. The threat in Scotland, where Diageo is the biggest exporter of Scotch whisky, according to its website, depends on how successful the world is at averting severe climate change, Menezes said. “There are scenarios where we could see being water-stressed in Scotland,” he said.
Energy crisis seen posing ‘existential threat’ to climate goals
Europe’s energy crisis has upended the green transition and undermined efforts keep global warming below 1.5 degrees Celsius, business leaders and environmentalists said on Monday, with one warning of an “existential threat” to climate goals. With parts of Europe facing a possible fuel shortage this winter, panelists at the Reuters IMPACT sustainability conference in London addressed the challenge of keeping the power on – sometimes by producing and using more coal – without giving up on the region’s climate goals. “We’re in a transformational moment,” said Steve Malkin, CEO of environmental consultancy Planet Mark, noting the war in Ukraine and resulting energy crisis posed an “existential threat” to countries’ sustainability goals.
Tune into day two of Reuters IMPACT and follow news from the forum here.
Media contact:
Heather Carpenter
Heather.Carpenter @ tr.com