Statement of Ambition
In June 2022 we launched our new Statement of Ambition which replaces our 2017 and 2019 Statements with a new single Statement to reflect signatories’ desire to be climate leaders as science and policy evolves. The Statement, which signatories are required to meet by September 2025 at the latest is designed to drive signatories to go further and faster across the three key pillars of climate action – mitigation, adaptation, and transition.
Climate Leaders Coalition Statement of Ambition
As signatories to the Climate Leaders Coalition, we are committed to working together to accelerate our transition towards a zero-carbon and climate resilient future where Aotearoa, and all New Zealanders, can thrive.
We honour the principles of Te Tiriti o Waitangi and play our part in supporting Aotearoa’s domestic and international climate commitments by:
- Reducing our own emissions and leading the way on climate adaptation and a just transition;
- Creating momentum that influences all businesses to act on climate change, and providing peer-to-peer support that enables this; and
- Promoting cross-party support for effective policy that provides the certainty that businesses and communities need to invest and transform.
To sign up to the Statement of Ambition, signatories must meet four minimum requirements:
- Measuring emissions and reporting them publicly;
- Adopting short-term gross absolute science aligned targets for scope 1 and 2 emissions to support the delivery of substantial reductions needed to limit future warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius;
- Assessing climate change risks and publicly disclosing them; and
- Proactively enabling employees and suppliers to reduce their emissions.
The remaining requirements must be met within two years of signing up or by September 2025 (whichever is soonest). The full Statement of Ambition (below) shows all requirements with bold showing the minimum requirements for joining.
- Measuring our emissions, having them independently verified, and reporting them publicly;
- Adopting short-and-long-term gross absolute science aligned targets for scope 1, 2, and 3 emissions to support the delivery of substantial reductions needed to limit future warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius;
- Assessing climate change risks and opportunities (including in the value chain), setting objectives and/or target(s) to reduce these risks and maximise opportunities, and publicly disclosing them;
- Proactively enabling our employees, board members, customers, and suppliers to reduce their emissions and reduce their climate change risks;
- Embedding plans within our businesses to accelerate climate action across mitigation, adaptation, and transition, and incorporate te ao Māori perspectives;
- Preparing for the next frontier of climate action, including considering the assessment of nature-based risks and long-term climate positive targets.
Approach to exceptions
The new Statement of Ambition was launched in June 2022 and gave existing signatories a period of 12 months (until the end of September 2023) to meet the minimum requirements of the new Statement (shown in bold above).
The Coalition represents a diverse range of signatories all focused on ambitious climate action and the journey to a low carbon future is different for each and every signatory.
As a result, the Coalition’s CEO Steering Group will consider applications from signatories wishing to remain a signatory to the Coalition but unable to meet the minimum requirements within the timeframe in the following circumstances:
- If there is no current sectoral science-aligned emissions reduction pathway for the signatory
- The signatory is critical to enabling Aotearoa’s overall decarbonisation (e.g. the signatory’s individual emissions may increase but New Zealand’s overall emissions would decrease)
- The use of gross intensity targets will be considered if they deliver absolute emissions reductions.
In all of these cases, the Coalition’s CEO Steering Group will seek a commitment to, and demonstration of, activity that strengthens the organisation’s climate action work in relation to the other requirements of the Statement.
Each application will be considered on a case-by-case basis. The Coalition will disclose in its Annual Snapshot Report signatories who have been granted exceptions and the reason for this. Exceptions will be reviewed annually.
If your organisation would like to discuss this further, please email [email protected]
Support for signatories to meet the new Statement of Ambition
The key ways we can support signatories to meet the new Statement commitments are:
Mentoring programme
Our business-to-business mentoring programme enables signatories to mentor or be mentored by other signatories on areas to advance their organisation’s climate action. This allows for peer-to-peer support. We run two intakes a year and expressions of interest are sent to signatories. The Coalition then matches mentors and mentees.
Masterclass series
Our online Masterclasses are typically held on the last Thursday of every month between 10-11am. The Masterclasses are usually led by a signatory to help others make faster progress on their area of expertise. These are focused on topics that enable signatories to build capability, support achievement of the Statement of Ambition requirements and advance their climate action. Watch the previous Materclasses here.