Swiss Re meets with Tony Blair and Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger to accelerate climate change solutions
London, 26 June 2007 – Today a coalition of 19 business leaders met with British Prime Minister Tony Blair and California’s Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger to accelerate transatlantic action on climate change and to encourage global momentum towards a low carbon economy.
The roundtable meeting at No10 Downing Street was attended by David Miliband, Secretary of State for Environment and senior representatives from B&Q, Barclays, BBC, BP, BSkyB, DuPont, Goldman Sachs, Google, Interface, JPMorgan, Man Group, National Express, News International, O2, Royal & Sun Alliance, Swiss Re, Tesco, Walkers and Warner Bros. The business leaders present have already pledged to work with governments, civil society, and their customers to tackle climate change.
At the meeting, the group reported on progress achieved on their own emissions reduction programmes, discussed challenges to developing an international emissions trading scheme, and reviewed successes in driving public engagement since the Long Beach summit in California last July, also co-ordinated by The Climate Group.
Swiss Re’s activities on Climate Change since July 2006:
Swiss Re will continue its support for the Corporate Climate Alliance in the future. Since 2006, Swiss Re made significant progress with regard to the alliance’s commitments in the following areas:
Products and services:
- Third Party Asset Management: In April 2007, Swiss Re announced the successful close of the EUR 329 million European Clean Energy Fund, one of the largest funds of this type in Europe. The Fund, a UN accredited investment vehicle, provides capital to European clean energy projects, which are environmentally beneficial, generate carbon credits or tradable renewable energy certificates.
Tackling our own carbon footprint:
- In 2007, Swiss Re introduced the “COyou2 Reduce and Gain” subsidy programme to make the Group’s climate change commitment more tangible to its employees. The programme supports employees' investments in measures that contribute to reducing greenhouse gas emissions, particularly in relation to mobility, heating and electrical energy. From now until the end of 2011, Swiss Re will rebate each employee one half of the amount invested in these measures, up to a maximum per employee of CHF 5’000 or the equivalent in local currency. More than 100 employees have already benefited from the scheme in the first three months since inception.
Advocacy and political dialogue:
- Swiss Re was a sponsor of the C40 Large Cities Climate Summit in New York City on 14-17 May 2007. The summit brought mayors and other city and business leaders from 47 world cities to New York City to develop a course of action for addressing the issues of climate change and how cities can play a part in helping to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
- Swiss Re signed a joint declaration issued by the Global Roundtable on Climate Change (CroCC) together with some 100 companies and organisations. A central point of the signatories’ proposal is the establishment of a global market price mechanism for carbon-dioxide emissions.
Read also the Press Release issued by the Climate Group.
