(gentle music)
Narrator: For a long time,
climate change may have seemed like a threat
in the distant future.
This is no longer the case.
Greater floods, heat waves, melting glaciers,
dying forests, diminished harvests.
For the first time in world history,
people start seeing the impact of climate change
in their everyday lives.
-: There is nothing more urgent than finding a path
to net zero.
In order to avoid the harmful effects of climate change,
global emissions must be cut in half by 2030
to stay on track with Paris Agreement goals
and reach net zero by 2050.
This is not easy.
But for business, it represents both an imperative
and an opportunity
to achieve sustainable competitive advantage.
Narrator: Today's atmospheric CO2 concentration
is higher than at any point in the last 800,000 years.
It may be the highest since as much as 15 million years ago,
a period when humans did not yet exist and sea levels
were 30 meters higher than they are today.
In 1959, CO2 levels were at 316 parts per million.
A year ago, they were above 410 parts per million.
Everyone can do the maths.
At the current pace, we will surpass 450 parts per million,
the two degrees centigrade limit, in less than 20 years,
with no credible way to turn back.
-: We can still turn our economies
to reduce the use of fossil fuels across all sectors,
but we need to act now.
Narrator: Why the urgency?
A prominent tipping point,
the irreversible meltdown of the Greenland ice cap,
is triggered at around two degrees of warming.
The melting would continuously raise sea levels
by up to seven meters.
Low-lying regions like the Netherlands
would progressively drown.
So would coastal cities like Manhattan and Shanghai.
It would also make further warming uncontainable.
Though the national commitments achieved in Paris
are a first sign the world community is determined to act,
our inaction so far has increased the stakes.
The gap to a two degree pathway is widening.
But there is good news.
Reducing emissions is no longer primarily
a technical problem.
BCG research has shown that most countries
can already meet around 80% of their two degree target
without requiring new or unproven technologies.
Even better, the economic case for countries that act
can actually be positive.
-: Companies across sectors have started to take action.
They're setting targets,
they're embarking on emission reduction problems,
they're reviewing and refining their strategies,
and products, and business models for a low-carbon world.
They're engaging with shareholders, investors, regulators,
and potential partners to find solutions
to minimize their climatic risks as they operate
in ecosystems across the world.
Narrator: We are embarking
on the largest peacetime transformation
the global economy has ever seen.
It's time to make it happen.