CGTN Europe interviewed Sanda Ojiambo, Assistant Secretary-General and Executive Director of the United Nations Global Compact
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00:00The United Nations Global Compact works to get businesses around the world to adopt sustainable policies.
00:06Sanda Ojiambo is Assistant Secretary General and Executive Director. Welcome to the program. Thank you very much for joining us today.
00:12So how important is it for what COP is trying to do to get business on board?
00:19So COP and really what the Climate Change Convention is about is bringing together governments as well as the private sector and civil society to move forward on the goals on climate.
00:29So what we do as the UN Global Compact is bring businesses together, help them set targets to decarbonize rapidly and deeply, but also to help meet all of the other elements that are major in the climate change debate, adaptation and resilience and financing as well.
00:44So some businesses have in the past been accused of greenwashing, effectively paying lip service to being greener but not actually taking any meaningful action. This is an issue, isn't it?
00:55It really is an issue and we at the Global Compact want to be sure that we work with companies who do not greenwash or even greenhash so many terms coming up.
01:03It's important when companies make pledges that they're not self-declared and self-monitored. They need to be credible and they need to be accountable.
01:10And that's why we work with the Science-Based Targets Initiative that provides a credible, verifiable science-based pathway so we can be sure that companies are making progress.
01:20Why is this important? We have found that companies that use science-based targets to decarbonize do so twice as fast as others. So we know that it works. About 6,000 companies are using this methodology.
01:31So, so far, who's been doing it right and what are they doing?
01:35So what do they do? And I don't want to name all 6,000 companies, but certainly lots of companies around the world have signed on.
01:43What do they do? The first thing is to acknowledge that you need to decarbonize. Then you set a target and then a pathway is set for you.
01:50And this is what you need to do to reduce your emissions, how you increase your use of renewables, perhaps what you do around changing your energy mix.
01:57It's a whole scientifically guided pathway and we found that lots of companies have been able to set targets.
02:05Again, for governments, this is truly important because here at COP, governments are going to set the National Climate Action Plan or the NDCs, the Nationally Determined Contributions.
02:14They won't be able to achieve those without private sector working in a credible and accountable way.
02:19So being sure that science and evidence is behind you is so important for decarbonization.
02:24So not all the big players are at this COP, are they? How hopeful are you that actually it is going to achieve anything?
02:32Well, you know, the COP is focused on a couple of things. The first, and remember, COP is a governmental, an intergovernmental process.
02:38So a couple of things that they want to look at is looking at the climate financing agenda and, you know, the mix of funding and where it's going to come from.
02:46That primarily is driven by governments. I know there's cause for private investment and blended financing,
02:52but governments will come together and they will negotiate then what the new goals are for climate finance.
02:58And then there's a piece of the Nationally Determined Contributions or the Action Plans, again, determined by government.
03:03Private sector is there to work alongside government.
03:06So what our CEOs are saying is that it's important for governments to be ambitious, to make those commitments and put them on the table, as well as make those commitments for climate action.
03:15So I think that's what's more important, the government decisions. It'll set the ambition and the framework the private sector will follow.
03:22Sandra, great to talk to you today. Thank you for joining us on the program. That's Sandra Ojiambo from the United Nations Global Compact.
03:28Thank you.