Thailand's Climate Leaders : C.P. Group committed to climate action and going carbon net zero by 2030

As a private corporation operating in 21 countries across the globe in eight business lines, Charoen Pokphand Group Co.,Ltd. (C.P. Group) is committed to driving sustainability and supporting all 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to help effect changes against serious global issues of global warming, biodiversity loss, and environmental deterioration of air, water, and soil.

Despite the Covid-19 pandemic, the group’s operations in the previous year involved several projects and initiatives to maximise resources efficiency, including expanding the use of renewable energy from various sources, reducing the use of plastic and improving recycling rate, reducing food waste, increasing investment in the environment and energy infrastructure of each country, supporting planting trees, and adopting environmentally-friendly technologies. Last year, the group invested over 1.4 billion baht in environment and climate action.

As such, C.P. Group was able to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 0.72 million tons of CO2e and energy consumption by 0.55 million gigajoules. The proportion of renewable electricity is 11% and over 92.15% of packages were reusable.

Suphachai Chearavanont, CEO, C.P. Group, has declared that the group aims to become a net zero organisation by 2030. Moreover, it has expanded the target to include the entire supply chain by 2050, as well as planting 20 million trees to boost carbon absorption by 2025.

“We must take every possible action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and increase the absorption of carbon,” said Suphachai at the “GCNT Forum 2021: Thailand’s Climate Leadership Summit,” organised by Global Compact Network Thailand (GCNT) together with the United Nations.

“The concept of circular economy must be adopted from design to development to service. Waste should be avoided at all costs, and if there is any, it must be reusable. We have to accelerate our effort to mitigate the effects of the climate crisis,” he said.

During the the forum discussion on “A New Era of Accelerated Actions,” GCNT members, including C.P. Group, announced a collective commitment to prevent and mitigate problems caused by climate change. The member companies would redouble their commitment to determine solutions and tackle the crisis. This will be accomplished by acknowledging the climate emergency, measuring and publicising greenhouse gas (GHG) emission in one’s business, taking action to reduce GHG emission, and becoming a GHG net zero organisation by 2050, or no later than 2070.   

C.P. Group has previously set a target to become a net zero organization, covering direct Scope 1 and indirection Scope 2 emissions by 2030, and extending the net zero ambition to cover value chain (Scope 3) emissions by 2050.

Moreover, C.P. Group has joined Thailand Carbon Neutral Network (TCNN), a cooperation between government, private, and local sectors to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. 

The group is a founding member of Thailand’s first Carbon Markets Club that supports trading of carbon credits and renewable power producers’ digital rights certificates.  

United Nations Global Compact has cited C.P. Group as one of only 38 LEAD-level organisations among over 18,000 member organisations around the world based on its high levels of engagement and commitment to sustainability.

Concluded Mr. Suphachai: “Thai economy is poised to enter a race to zero driven by clean and optimal energy use and transition toward a green economy that is fair for all groups of people and C.P. Group is pulling out the stops to help lead the transition.” 

#GCNTFORUM2021 #ClimateAction #ANewEraofAction

source: https://www.bangkokpost.com/business/2210415