Scania has committed to set target to reduce greenhouse gas emissions “at the pace and scale that science dictates” in response to a call by the United Nations for business to step up and take bolder actions in tackling climate change.
“Business has a vital role to play in limiting global warming and building the net-zero carbon economy of the future,” said Scania president and CEO, Henrik Henriksson. “Deciding to step up and signing the UN plea reinforces the work we are already committed to, which is to drive the shift towards a sustainable transport sector.”
In the lead-up to the UN Climate Action Summit held in September in New York, business leaders were challenged to set ambitious targets for their companies to limit global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees C above pre-industrial levels.
Scania said it has “worked diligently” over the past years to reduce emission levels generated from its own operations and transport footprint, and has committed to a number of targets including cutting CO2 emissions both from its land transport and its own operations by half by 2025 – as well as to switch to 100 per cent fossil-free electricity by 2020.
However, the bulk of the CO2 emissions occurs when Scania’s products are in use. Scania said it has worked over decades to minimise emissions from its products through better fuel efficiency and a broad range of products that run on alternatives to fossil fuel.
Part of what the company has now committed to is to take this another step forward by including the emissions from the use of its products in the decarbonisation target.
“In battling climate change, Scania has already taken many big steps,” Henriksson concluded. “However, we need to continue this work and we need to make sure others join us. We need to work in partnerships with others that share the same climate and sustainability ambitions as we do.”
