By Zoe Le Grand

This article was originally published on Forum for the Future and is republished with permission.

When I heard that the world’s leaders had signed the Paris Climate Accord- the agreement to limit the increase in the earth’s temperature to 1.5C, I punched the air. Ticker tape fell from the ceiling as the hallelujah chorus played in the background. I felt the tingle of anticipation on the back of my neck. Maybe this was it. Maybe, just maybe, it was all going to be alright.

The exhilaration was quickly followed by a mini-earthquake as all around the world, progressive business leaders’, government officials’ and environmentalists’ jaws hit the ground. How the hell are we going to do this? If we want even a 66% chance of hitting that target, we have five years before greenhouse gas emissions need to start falling, and they need to start falling fast. The excruciating, tiring negotiations in Paris were the easy bit. Now we actually have to deliver this mother. 

The good news is, that a lot of the technological solutions already exist. You only have to have a quick look through our Futures Centre to see the scale and pace of innovation. From roll-out solar panels that can be deployed quickly to disaster areas, to digital wind farms which learn and adapt to maximise their efficiency. Other projects such as Paul Hawken’s Project Drawdown, are also pulling together solutions. Not just the technological ones but also the social solutions (think dietary choices, family planning etc) and ecological solutions like restoring carbon in soils. The project aims to use its list to communicate a credible pathway to addressing climate change, highlight how different segments of society are already taking action, and let people know that solving climate change is possible. Some tricky areas such as the elusive ‘carbon negative technologies’ are still at an early stage but a lot of the solutions have already been invented. 

But to actually meet the scale of the challenge laid down in Paris, we need businesses to up their game to take these solutions to scale. The reductions required are too big for one business to deliver alone. Businesses need to not only innovate solutions, but also use the power of collective action to create some real change. 

So if you’re a business, what does that mean for you? At Forum, we’ll be working with our partners to help them to take on this ‘climate challenge’ (more on that another time), but here are some ideas to get you started:

• Set science-based targets, which challenge you to deliver carbon savings, not just in your own operations, but for your customers and suppliers too. 

• Take a sober look at the risks that a world which is 1.5C warmer poses to your supply chains and take action to address those risks.

• Innovate products and services so they reduce carbon and enable us to flourish in a world which is 1.5C warmer.

• Come together with your peers and competitors, with governments, academia and NGOs to work across systems, whether that’s agriculture, manufacturing or apparel, to change the rules of the game and achieve reductions at a scale that you couldn’t achieve alone.

Paris set the challenge. The solutions exist. It’s time to deliver.

Technological and social solutions to tackle climate change already exist - how can we ensure delivery on them?