GSK

GSK is a science-led global healthcare company with a special purpose: to help people do more, feel better, live longer. We have three global businesses that research, develop and manufacture innovative pharmaceutical medicines, vaccines and consumer healthcare products. Every day, we help improve the health of millions of people around the world.

Addressing our environmental impact is fundamental to our purpose, so that together with our partners, we can help protect and restore the planet’s health, in order to protect and improve people’s health. In November 2020, we announced ambitious new environmental sustainability goals; to be carbon net zero and nature net positive by 2030 as a key part of our focused ESG approach, to support the delivery of sustainable long-term business performance, reduced risk and increased social impact.

As a Principal Partner of COP26, GSK will support action to accelerate collaboration to protect the climate, nature and health, in support of a sustainable future. Alongside other leading health focused organisations, we will work to improve understanding and measurement of the impacts of climate change and nature loss on health. This will support improved health resilience globally, including as part of future pandemic preparedness, as we better understand how climate change and nature loss will impact disease burden and patient need in the future so that life science research can respond.

Working in partnership across the life sciences sector on the Race to Zero, we are supporting collaborative action, including on supply chain scope 3 emissions. We believe the industry can support healthcare systems transition to net zero through the promotion and development of low carbon medical treatments and new models of care. 

Hitachi

Hitachi has taken a socially responsible approach to business since its establishment in 1910, when our Founder Mr, Namihei Odaira defined the company’s mission to ‘contribute to society through the development of superior, original technology and products.’

Now, more than 110 years later, Hitachi’s mission remains a good fit with the way we run our business today. Our Social Innovation Business is on a mission to power good in the world – combining information technology, operational technology and products to develop solutions to answer some of the world’s biggest challenges,
creating social, environmental and economic value.

In this way, Hitachi is uniquely placed to help anticipate the needs of society and bring added value. Hitachi’s ambition is to become climate change innovators – and reduce carbon for Governments, cities and our customers. Our Environmental Vision states ‘we will resolve environmental issues and achieve both a higher quality of life and a
sustainable society, in collaborative creation with stakeholders.’

Hitachi has several long-term environmental targets, including striving to achieve carbon neutrality at all its business sites by 2030 and to be carbon neutral across the company’s value chain by 2050.

We are proud to be a Principal Partner of COP26, playing our role in the decarbonisation of society and tackling climate change. Through our sponsorship, we want to contribute to the achievement of global goals to reduce environmental impact and ultimately help create a more sustainable future, through the power of Social Innovation.

Microsoft

Microsoft is accelerating progress toward a more sustainable future by reducing our environmental footprint, advancing research, helping customers build sustainable solutions, and advocating for policies that benefit the environment.

In 2020, Microsoft announced a bold commitment and detailed plan to be carbon negative by 2030 and to remove from the environment all the carbon the company emitted since its founding by 2050. We have built on this pledge by adding commitments to be water positive by 2030, zero waste by 2030, and to protect ecosystems by developing a Planetary Computer.

We believe deeply in the power of COP26 to bring together the people needed to focus clearly on the necessary commitments and pathways to transition to a net zero carbon economy by 2050. As a Principal Partner of COP26, we want to help people and organizations better understand the transformative potential for technology to help solve many of the complex climate challenges we face.

National Grid

National Grid operates at the heart of a transforming energy system, committed to delivering electricity and gas safely, reliably and efficiently to the millions of customers and communities we serve in the UK and the northeastern US. We also drive change through engineering innovations to help revolutionise and decarbonise the future of energy.

As a business, we have a responsibility to contribute to society more broadly – whether that’s by helping the young people of today to become the energy problem-solvers of tomorrow or supporting our customers to use energy more efficiently.

Tackling climate change and reaching net zero is at the top of our agenda. We are focused on finding ways to decarbonise the energy system – from building interconnectors to allow the UK to share clean energy with our neighbours in Europe, to investing in renewable energy generation in the US. We have also set our own commitments to achieve net zero by 2050, and are working hard to increase our ambition. Our vision is to be at the heart of a clean, fair and affordable energy future.

We are incredibly excited to be a partner for COP26. It is a unique opportunity for us to drive more ambitious change towards a clean energy future – as a company, in the UK and northeastern US, and internationally – and show that achieving net zero is possible with the technologies we have today.

NatWest Group

NatWest Group is the leading UK bank for business customers, we support 19 million people with their everyday personal banking and we employ over 60,000 staff. This places a significant responsibility on us to tackle climate change.

We are taking bold actions to drive the transition to a low carbon economy. We’ve set ourselves the challenge to at least halve the climate impact of our financing activity by 2030 and intend to do what is necessary to achieve alignment with the 2015 Paris Agreement. We have also committed to making our own operations net carbon zero in 2020 and climate positive by 2025.

We will also stop lending and underwriting companies with more than 15% of activities related to coal, unless they have a credible transition plan in line with the 2015 Paris Agreement by end of 2021; and phase-out from coal fully by 2030. We will stop lending and underwriting major oil and gas producers by the end of 2021 unless they also have a similar plan.

But it is not just about targets – we also want to champion solutions. NatWest Group is already the leading lender to the UK renewables sector and between now and 2022 we will provide an additional £20bn of funding and financing for climate and sustainable finance. We recognise the cooperation that needs to take place between governments, businesses, regulators and society as a whole and NatWest Group is determined to be a leading bank on addressing climate change. Being the only bank supporting COP26 is a clear demonstration of that.

Reckitt

Reckitt exists to protect, heal and nurture in the relentless pursuit of a cleaner, healthier world. We believe that access to the highest-quality hygiene, wellness and nourishment is a right, not a privilege.

Reckitt is the company behind some of the world’s most recognisable and trusted consumer brands in hygiene, health and nutrition and every day, more than 20 million Reckitt products are bought globally. We always put consumers and people first, seek out new opportunities, strive for excellence in all that we do, and build shared success with all our partners. We aim to do the right thing, always.

We are committed to science-based targets to meet the Paris Climate Agreement by 2030; be carbon neutral by 2040; and power our operations with 100% renewable electricity by 2030. Our ambition is to reach half the world with purpose-led brands and engage 2 billion people in programmes, partnerships and campaigns that inspire behaviour change and create a positive impact.

We’re delighted to be the Hygiene Partner for COP26 and provide our expertise at this pivotal moment in our collective fight against climate change. Climate change, planetary health and public health are intrinsically linked. As the world convenes to take collective action in November, we look forward to playing our part in a successful, historic and safe summit.

Sainsbury’s

Since our humble beginnings in 1869, we have offered great quality food and services to a range of communities that we are proud to serve. Today, as one of the UK’s biggest retailers, we employ 172,000 colleagues, who work hard every day to serve our millions of customers.

Our colleagues, customers and suppliers care about climate change. They trust us to be a responsible business and we have long been recognised and acted on our duty to protect the environment. We have built on this work by setting a number of ambitious targets to deliver over the coming years.

For instance, last year we pledged to become Net Zero in our operations by 2040, investing £1 billion over twenty years to achieve this. Our sustainability plan also includes healthy and sustainable diets, recycling, driving towards water neutrality, reducing food waste and plastic packaging and working to be net positive for biodiversity. 

Sainsbury’s will also take a leading role in helping customers improve their own diets as well as their impact on the environment, with an exciting new brand mission which we will be announcing later this spring.

We have been working hard to reduce our emissions and are now pushing beyond operational initiatives in refrigeration and lighting by setting an absolute target* to reduce our Scope 3 Greenhouse Gas emissions by 30% by 2030.  The target includes reducing emissions from purchased goods and services sold, upstream transport and distribution and the direct use of sold products. We have also committed to working closely with our vast global supplier base to develop and then meet their own targets.  

We know we can’t stop there and our partnership with COP26 further highlights our commitment to driving long-lasting and meaningful change. We look forward to playing an integral part in critical collaborative work between global leaders, climate experts and businesses at COP26 this year.

ScottishPower

ScottishPower is part of the Iberdrola Group, one of the world’s largest integrated utility companies and a global leader in wind energy.  We believe in developing an energy model that prioritises the well-being of people and the preservation of the planet.  We’re committed to tackling climate change and were the first integrated energy company in the UK to switch to 100% clean energy generation, producing all our electricity from offshore and onshore wind.

The Group has outlined a €75 billion investment plan to 2025 as a firm commitment to a green economic recovery, of which £10bn will be in the UK. This investment strategy in clean energy generation and networks infrastructure will lead to the Iberdrola Group becoming a zero-carbon company in Europe by 2030. Our focus is on wind energy, smart grids and driving the change to a cleaner, electric future and we are determined to play a leading role in helping the UK to meet its decarbonisation goals.

COP26 is a unique opportunity to galvanise the action necessary to realise these goals, and to raise public awareness of the importance and urgency of the challenge. At the heart of this is the need for a sustainable and fairer future to be at the centre of a global economic recovery. As host country, the UK must work hard to ensure the summit raises ambition and accelerates actions that set us firmly on a path to a safer climate for all.  ScottishPower is delighted to be Principal Partner of COP26 and we are ready to play our part in helping to deliver this success.

SSE

SSE is the leading generator of renewable electricity in the UK and Ireland, providing energy needed today while building a better world of energy for tomorrow. It develops and operates low-carbon infrastructure supporting the net zero transition, including onshore and offshore wind, hydro power, electricity transmission and distribution grids, efficient gas, alongside providing energy products and services for businesses. UK listed, SSE is a major contributor to the UK and Ireland economies, employs 12,000 people and is real Living Wage and Fair Tax Mark accredited.

From its hydro power stations bringing electricity to the masses in the 1940s, through to construction today of the world’s biggest offshore wind farm at Dogger Bank and its huge renewables portfolio, SSE plays a key role in the UK’s energy infrastructure. It will invest £7.5bn – £4m every single day – over the next five years to support decarbonisation.

It was one of the first energy firms to call for a legally binding net zero by 2050 target and has committed to stretching Science Based Targets and the Race to Zero Business Ambition for 1.5 degrees, which will see SSE cut emissions further and faster.

It believes the problems of people and planet can be solved with focused action to tackle climate change. SSE is part of the solution to build a better world of energy – and it’s proud to be a Principal Partner of the UK Government and COP26.

Unilever

Unilever is one of the world’s leading manufacturers of consumer goods products, with sales in over 190 countries and products used by 2.5 billion people every day. Unilever has around 400 brands found in homes all over the world – including Dove, Knorr, Persil/OMO, The Vegetarian Butcher, and Ben & Jerry’s.

Unilever has a long tradition of being a progressive, responsible business. Its business strategy, the Unilever Compass, includes a 1.5 aligned science-based target to reduce operational emissions to zero by 2030, and achieve net zero emissions across the value chain by 2039.

Unilever has always argued that the climate crisis can only be addressed through public, private and civil society coming together. Unilever and the UK Government are working together with other partners to explore the viability of hydrogen as an alternative to natural gas to fuel manufacturing plants, and to advance public-private collaboration to protect and restore forests around the world.

As a Principal Partner of COP26, Unilever will continue to work with partners to help to accelerate climate leadership and ambition in the lead-up to the summit.