ESG 23 Final Single pages - Flipbook - Page 24
Environment
Climate change is expected to
worsen the frequency, intensity
and impacts of extreme
weather events. Without action we will see
detrimental changes to the world we live in.
In October 2023, the BBC reported that on
about a third of days in 2023 the average
global temperature was at least 1.5C higher
than pre-industrial levels. This warming rate
has scientists concerned as staying below
that marker long-term is widely considered
crucial to avoid the most damaging impacts
of climate change. Currently 2023 is 'on
track' to be the hottest year on record,
and 2024 could be even hotter1.
When political leaders gathered in Paris in December
2015, they signed an agreement, the ‘Paris Agreement’
to keep the long-term rise in global temperatures this
century 'well below' 2C and to make every e昀昀ort to keep
it under 1.5C. The agreed limits refer to the di昀昀erence
between global average temperatures now and what they
were in the pre-industrial period, between 1850 and 1900,
before the widespread use of fossil fuels. Breaching these
Paris thresholds does not mean going over them for a
day or a week but instead involves going beyond this limit
across a 20- or 30-year average. This long-term average
warming 昀椀gure currently sits at around 1.1C to 1.2C.
But the more often 1.5C is breached for individual days,
the closer the world gets to breaching this mark in the
longer term.
RWS and its colleagues are committed to helping prevent
the impact of global climate change by transitioning to
carbon net zero.
1 https://www.bbc.
co.uk/news/scienceenvironment-66857354
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RWS Holdings plc — ESG Report 2023 ENVIRONMENT
