The Climate Pledge announced today the addition of nearly 100 new companies, marking continued rapid growth in the number of signatories joining the initiative and committing to achieve net zero carbon emissions by 2040. New signatories to the pledge include enterprise application software company SAP and integrated container logistics company Maersk, timberland company Weyerhaeuser and connected car and audio services, HARMAN.

Christian Klein, SAP CEO, said:

“Climate change is one of the greatest challenges of our time and the time to act is now. Technology provides us with an opportunity to create a lasting, positive impact for future generations and SAP is proud to join The Climate Pledge to help drive this change.”

The Climate Pledge was co-founded by Amazon and climate change-focused organization Global Optimism, calling on signatories to achieve net zero carbon across their businesses 10 years ahead of the Paris Accord’s 2050 target. Companies that sign onto the Climate Pledge agree to numerous steps, including:

• Measuring and reporting GHG emissions on a regular basis
• Implementing decarbonization strategies in line with the Paris Agreement through real business changes and innovations. These include efficiency improvements, renewable energy, materials reductions, and other carbon emission elimination strategies
• Neutralizing any remaining emissions with additional, quantifiable, real, permanent, and socially beneficial offsets to achieve net zero annual carbon emissions by 2040

The new additions bring the total number of signatories to 300, tripling over the past year.

Many of the new signatories are already making efforts to cut their emissions. Maersk, for example, recently announced an acceleration of its carbon reduction targets, aiming to achieve net zero gas emissions in 2040 across its entire business and scope, 10 years ahead of its initial target. SAP also recently announced a new commitment to achieve net zero emissions across its value chain in 2030, 20 earlier than its original target.

Andy Jassy, Amazon CEO, said:

“The effects of climate change are becoming more and more apparent in our surroundings and daily lives, and we firmly believe that the private sector must continue to innovate and collaborate across regions and industries in order to decarbonize the global economy at scale. It’s an encouraging sign that more than 300 businesses have now signed The Climate Pledge, which commits them to confronting climate change head-on by incorporating real business changes that will make a lasting impact on our planet. We can only do it together.”

Christiana Figueres, founding partner of Global Optimism and the United Nations’ former climate chief, added:

“In the face of great peril, which is what the latest science depicts, the business community must have a clear path forward: Step up and accelerate emissions reductions so that we might avoid the worst of the damages yet to come. It’s encouraging, therefore, that 300 companies are committed to working together to achieve net-zero by 2040 or sooner through The Climate Pledge. But 300 companies are not enough to deliver the transformations we need. I encourage all business leaders to get to grips with the science, translate it for their businesses, and enable the changes we need without delay.”