By Dieter Holger

 

More than 20 global companies with a combined market value of $1.2 trillion have pledged to set more ambitious targets to limit global warming, the United Nations said Tuesday.

The carbon-dioxide targets will help limit global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels and reach net-zero emissions by 2050.

"Climate leadership has never been more important than it is right now, and it is inspiring to see so many diverse companies and brands boldly raising their ambitions," said Lise Kingo, chief executive and executive director of the UN Global Compact, an initiative where businesses voluntarily pledge to a set of environmental and human-rights principles.

The 27 companies setting new CO2 targets include Levi Strauss & Co. (LEVI), AstraZeneca PLC (AZN.LN), Unilever NV (UNA.AE) and Vodafone Group PLC (VOD.LN). They worked with the Science Based Targets Initiative to develop the goals, which has assisted some 600 firms to date.

SAP SE (SAP.XE), which was among the companies who made the commitment, aims for its operations to be carbon-neutral by 2025 in part thanks to improved energy efficiency.

"Our strong cloud strategy will be a key driver based on efficiency gains in our data centers and a significant increase of our cloud customers," said Daniel Schmid, chief sustainability officer at SAP.

 

Write to Dieter Holger at dieter.holger@dowjones.com; @dieterholger

 

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

July 23, 2019 01:15 ET (05:15 GMT)

Copyright (c) 2019 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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