Antti Ruuska, Ylva: A very inconvenient situation – time for action is now!

Al Gore introduced us to the inconvenient truth of climate change in 2006 through his book and film. Simply put, the inconvenient truth is that solving the climate crisis requires us to make profound changes in the way we live our lives, run our societies and conduct our business. This is such a daunting task that it’s easy to understand why many of us prefer to resist the facts and continue our lives and our business as usual.

Maybe that is also why we can now find ourselves in a very inconvenient situation. The latest IPCC report sends a grave message and a ’final warning’ to all of us. As UN Secretary General António Guterres put it, we are on ’fast-track to climate disaster’. Thus far, we’ve failed to take the necessary action to tackle the climate crisis. We are still funding new fossil fuel projects, even though we know that it is the root cause that’s cooking our planet.

The good news is that we still have the opportunity to be in charge of our own future and to avoid the most disastrous outcomes of climate change. However, immediate and large-scale emission reductions are necessary. We need to urgently move from high-level speeches, empty promises, and hollow pledges to impactful and immediate climate actions. The time for action is now!

Ylva participated in UN Global Compact’s Climate Ambition Accelerator in 2021. Ylva had already committed to carbon neutrality in it’s real estate and restaurant business by 2025, but wanted to ensure that its goals were in line with the necessary actions for a 1.5C world through the programme. As a result, Ylva was able to set science based climate targets, and get them approved. Ylva’s SBT’s will be published later in 2022.