Tackling Climate Change: Our Pledge to Action Campaign Launches

Everyone has experienced delays and cancellations because of the COVID-19 pandemic, and the 26th UN Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP26) is no exception, with its rescheduling by a year. Five years on from the Paris Agreement, 2020 was due to be a big year for climate action through the multilateral discussions at COP26. Bringing over 30,000 delegates together in Scotland including heads of state, climate experts and campaigners, there was an expectation that all nations would adopt strategies to reach net zero emissions by 2050. There is an urgency to agree coordinated action to tackle climate change.

Here’s the crucial part – the climate emergency has not slowed down, even though the conference itself has been delayed until 2021. Globally, we are increasingly seeing the effects of climate change, and while the UN Climate Change process is central to achieving collective action, we can’t delay action until COP26.

Pledge to Action Campaign

Today Jacobs is launching a campaign striving for immediate action to address the climate emergency. We invite our partners from all over the globe to pledge measurable actions to urgently address climate change. Working together, we would like to fulfill these pledges.

Collectively, we can quantify the impact these actions have over the year to demonstrate what can be achieved and the impact we can have when we unite. Irrespective of long-term plans to tackle the climate crisis, lots of companies each taking one small action, that can be fulfilled by COP26, can make a big difference.

Our Action

In our Climate Action Plan, we set out that our biggest opportunity to affect climate change comes through our influence and the work we perform with our clients – from the world’s largest infrastructure projects to mission-critical outcomes and cutting-edge manufacturing. Partnering with our clients to challenge what is expected, we’re able to better design resilient solutions that positively alter the projected climate change effects and discover a new way forward.

In addition to setting our own Science Based Targets to act on throughout 2021, we’re going to support five of our key clients to undertake a climate risk assessment to better understand the vulnerabilities their businesses face from climate change and aid decision making. 

Pledge to Action intends to show the impact that can be made to address the climate crisis immediately through collaboration during the next 12 months. Tackling the climate crisis needs collective commitment to drive change – by taking action together, we will accomplish much more than we ever could alone.

As well as supporting clients to fulfill their pledges we are empowering employees to make a collective positive impact through our Collectively^SM program. Employees can sign up to the challenge to complete practical activities each month that can significantly reduce their carbon pollution and help to tackle climate change.

You can keep up to date with Pledge to Action and read about PlanBeyond, our approach to sustainability, at Jacobs.com/about/sustainability. For more information on how Jacobs is working to address climate change for a brighter tomorrow, visit jacobs.com/climate-action-plan.