Great things can happen when people come together with a common goal. At the 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference in Paris almost 200 countries managed to reach a consensus on a new plan for combatting climate change. Barack Obama described it as a potential ‘turning point for the world’.
The world certainly has done a lot of turning since then, but the ambitions of the Paris Agreement shouldn’t be forgotten. There is an increasing appreciation of the impact climate change is having on our planet and that it is the responsibility of society, businesses and Governments.
One area in which these different parties must come together to make a difference is road transportation, the only major sector in the EU where greenhouse gas emissions continue to rise. Currently, road transport contributes about one-fifth of the total emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2), the main greenhouse gas. While these emissions fell by 3.3% in 2012, they are still 20.5% higher than in 1990.
To maintain the high quality of life we have enjoyed in recent years, people have to have access to mobility solutions that are both practical and more sustainable. Not an easy challenge, we know.
That’s why LeasePlan is hosting a dinner, together with the World Economic Forum, the We Mean Business coalition and the World Business Council for Sustainable Development, on ‘The Race to Zero: Eliminating Auto Industry Emissions Across the Value Chain’. We are bringing together around 40 forward-thinking speakers from various fields to launch the Circular Car Initiative (CCI), a private/public sector collaboration focused on leveraging new technologies and business models to align the automotive industry with regulatory drivers for sustainability in the EU and globally. This diverse group, which includes thought leaders from the automotive industry and the public sector, non-governmental organisations and academia, will be calling on participants to collaborate to make circular cars a reality within a decade.