Global push for net-zero recovery from COVID-19

In the largest ever UN-backed, CEO-led climate advocacy effort, we join other multinationals in reaffirming science-based commitments to achieving a zero carbon economy and calling on governments to match the ambition.

More than 155 companies — spanning 34 sectors, headquarters in 33 countries and representing a combined total over 5 million employees — have signed a statement urging governments around the world to align their COVID-19 economic aid and recovery efforts with the latest climate science. Grundfos is one of them.

“In spite of its severity, the current health and economic crisis should not lead decision makers across the world to lower their climate ambitions and slow down the green transition. For all of us to truly recover better, we need the very opposite. This means massive investments in energy efficiency, renewable energy production and green electrification,” says Mads Nipper, Group President & CEO, Grundfos.

As debates on recovery packages around the world gather pace, the companies, which are all part of the Science Based Targets initiative, are calling for policies that will build resilience against future shocks by supporting efforts to hold global temperature rise to within 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels, in line with reaching net-zero emissions well before 2050.

“Green investment is not only necessary for reaching the 1.5 degree climate target. It is also a far better way to kickstart the economy during a crisis, as investments in green technologies create more than three times as many new jobs as fossil fuel equivalent investments per million USD invested. Green business is good business. Not just in times of high growth, but especially in tough times like now,” adds Mads Nipper.

By signing the statement, the companies are reaffirming that their own decisions and actions remain grounded in science, while calling on governments to “prioritize a faster and fairer transition from a grey to a green economy.”

Read the joint press release by the Science Based Targets initiative, the UN Global Compact, and the We Mean Business coalition.

Click here for The Recover Better statement, including a full list of company signatories.