Ingka Group joins virtual UN Climate Action Summit and Climate Week – as the focus shifts to how we recover and reset after COVID-19

Events like Climate Week NYC* has a key role to play in raising ambition and speeding up and accelerate climate action. The summits represent a key opportunity to strengthen the momentum and urgency on how governments, business and organisations need to work together to contribute to solving two crises, COVID-19 and the climate crisis, at once. 

This year the UN Climate Event and Climate Summit are fully virtual due to COVID-19, with many events and speeches taking place via video link. 

The summit follows on from an open letter signed by IKEA on 15 September, together with more than 150 European businesses, investors and business networks. The open letter calls on EU leaders to step up climate action and backs the ambition set out in the European Green Deal to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by at least 55% by 2030 compared to 1990.          

The letter was acknowledged last week in the 2020 State of the Union Address by President of the European Commission Ursula van der Leyen.

“Despite the significant challenges we’re facing in the world, we still have it in our own hands to change the direction of the climate crisis. We have a responsibility to lead change as we’re a big business with big impact and by actively engaging in the summit we use our voice to engage and ask governments and other businesses to step up their actions to drastically reduce GHG emissions by 2030,” says Jesper Brodin, CEO Ingka Group.   

During the summit Jesper Brodin, CEO, Pia Heidenmark Cook, CSO and Juvencio Maeztu, CFO and Deputy CEO will participate in relevant policy conversations, panel discussions and engagements in areas related to the EU Green Deal, net zero transition, electric vehicle adoption, circularity and the future of our economic system and society in general. 

Ingka Group is committed to take climate action, contributing to the IKEA overall commitment to reducing more greenhouse gas emissions than the IKEA value chain emits, by 2030**. Ingka Group’s emission reduction goals are approved by the Science Based Targets Initiative, the targets are consistent with reductions required to keep warming to 1.5°C. This a community of 850+ pioneering companies committed to set ambitious emissions reduction targets through the Science Based Targets initiative. 

“We see the summit as one of the key opportunities to create momentum and urgency on how we need to face COVID and the climate crisis together, as an opportunity to contribute to solving two crises at once,” says Pia Heidenmark Cook, Chief Sustainability Officer, Ingka Group. 

“We need to use events like this to collaborate, learn and contribute towards a movement across society. Our business is well placed – thanks to our vision, offer, reach– to contribute to making sustainable and healthy living attractive, easy and affordable for the many people,” she says.

IKEA has been fully supportive of the EU Green Deal and the Exponential Climate Action Roadmap*** to halve GHG emissions in absolute terms by 2030. Earlier this year, IKEA announced that it had reduced the climate footprint by 4.3% while growing the IKEA business with 6.5%.

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*Climate Week NYC is arranged by the non-profit organization The Climate Group, United Nations and the city of New York. The Climate Group, which IKEA is a partner of, focuses on accelerating action to limit climate change, by bringing together a network of business and governments, and act as a catalyst to take innovation and solutions to scale. 

**Becoming climate positive is about reducing more greenhouse gas emissions than what the IKEA value chain emits. IKEA will eliminate GHG emissions in line with Paris Agreement, store carbon in land, plants and products, go beyond IKEA – by addressing a footprint larger than the IKEA value chain, take action together – engage with others to realise a 1.5°C world. Read more about the IKEA commitment here.   

***The Exponential Climate Action Roadmap outlines the global economic transformation required by 2030 to meet the Paris Agreement on climate.