All businesses have a critical role to play in achieving climate ambitions

With less than six months to COP26, we’re seeing countries across the world setting ambitious targets to cut carbon emissions. Last month, the UK committed to cut carbon emissions by 78% by 2035, with the new plans going further than before on critical areas such as emissions from international aviation and shipping. This commitment represents a significant shift in understanding what truly needs to be done to hit net zero. We’ve also had President Biden accelerate the US’ plans for tackling the climate crisis, with bold action to slash emissions in half by 2030.

Putting in place ambitious targets will help focus minds across industries, sectors and businesses of all shapes and sizes. But it can’t just be a number on a piece of paper. We all need to look at that target and think about the role we can play in achieving the goal.

The clock is ticking. There is widespread consensus that COP26 is a huge opportunity to accelerate progress on tackling climate change, with the potential to rally the world on the biggest issue of our time. But what governments and business achieve before and after the summit will also be critical in dictating the pace at which we decarbonise and reach a clean energy future.

We need to see a hard push to get carbon emissions down from now until the summit, and in the years that follow. We’re seeing real momentum building among businesses with over 2,100 companies around the world, including National Grid, joining the global Race to Zero campaign, with a commitment to halve emissions by 2030 and achieve net zero by 2050 at the very latest.

There is a huge opportunity for businesses across different sectors and industries to ramp up their efforts and drive the green economic recovery. But this will involve each and every organisation making climate change a top priority on their agendas. From creating green jobs, driving green innovation and reducing greenhouse gas emissions to working with supply chains to achieve decarbonisation, there are numerous ways that companies can help deliver the long-term changes needed.

Next month, we will be publishing our Annual Report, outlining the progress National Grid is making in the US and in the UK and highlighting where our efforts will be focused over the coming 12 months. We will also be publishing our first (separate) Responsible Business Report which provides an overview of the commitments we are making and the actions we are taking to hold ourselves to account. We are proud of the transformational engineering we have achieved so far and the progress we are making against our Responsible Business commitments, but we are also very clear that there is a lot more to be done.

We are looking to governments for clear policy frameworks to give businesses greater clarity. For example, we’re expecting strategies on hydrogen and decarbonising transport to be published in the coming months in the UK. Momentum is building and we are focused on delivering a clean energy future. If governments, businesses, regulators and business owners all work together, we can make strides towards 2030 goals. Straying from this purpose will keep these targets out of reach and ultimately jeopardise climate ambitions.