There will be no fireworks for the silver anniversary of the international climate conference in December 2019 — COP 25 in Chile. In fact, only when the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change becomes redundant will there be celebrations. But Executive Director of the UN Global Compact Chile, Margarita Ducci Budge, believes that the 1.5°C business leaders are beginning to create some momentum ahead of the talks that could help to ratchet ambition up at the international level.

Margarita is responsible for advancing corporate sustainability at the grassroots level in Chile. She is beginning to see change in industries such as energy, transport, and waste, where companies are driving Chile’s sustainable transformation. Much work is still needed, and Margarita urges more companies to join the 1.5°C campaign before COP 25 to send the right message to governments.

“When companies step up their ambition levels, they can act faster than governments, and people see real change, inspiring action at the individual and political level”, says Margarita. She also realises that the more people are aware of sustainability and climate action, the more businesses stand to gain from taking these positive steps: “The value that companies can generate from taking real, meaningful action is enormous. People can see through greenwashing efforts and false CSR strategies, so only real action will make the impact businesses hope for moving forward”.

Margarita believes that the momentum created by the 1.5°C business leaders could be exactly what the international climate talks need in order to ratchet their ambitions, just as the Paris Agreement called for. In order to have any hope of staying below 1.5°C, we need business and governments to move together.