According to the London-based Committee on Climate
Change (CCC) global greenhouse gas emissions
must be reduced to under 50 percent of 2007 levels
in order to keep the increase in average temperature within
2°C by 2050. This will require societies worldwide to develop
patterns of consumption that emit 50-to-80 percent less CO2
than today. The role of business is central in CO2 emission
reduction initiatives and key to the decarbonisation of societal
consumption.
Efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, other pollutants,
and waste within supply chains have been occurring in earnest
since the late 1980s and initiatives by large enterprises such
as supermarket chains in the United Kingdom, Wal-Mart
and other low-cost retailers in the United States1
and heavy
industries such as automobile manufacturing and aluminum
smelting have attracted considerable attention.
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