good morning
As the UN’s COP29 climate meeting winds down in Baku this week, IKEA CEO Jesper Brodin has a message for those who missed it — or who want to tune in: “Let’s start our transformation. is done and irreversible,” he told me over the phone. “There’s no way we’re going to reconsider because of politics,” from Azerbaijan.
As for the U.S. and other world governments, he and other “climate CEOs” said in a letter released ahead of the meeting, now is the time to “double down on climate action.” be given”, rather than turning away from it.
Yet sadly for Braden, it’s a message that is falling on deaf ears in both Baku and Washington.
In Baku, negotiators from developing countries described the climate finance offered by the European Union and other leading economies as a “joke”, deeming them too little for the transition needed. In the US, meanwhile, the new Trump administration is almost certain to withdraw from the Paris Agreement on climate change.
Why, then, is Brodin staying on that path when so many others are falling by the wayside?
Perhaps the answer is that the logic of companies like IKEA, which are “stepping up” their climate action, is an irrefutable one. Decarbonization is “the biggest economic shift since industrialization,” Brodin said, and for companies that are leading rather than lagging behind the field, it’s already yielded “huge economic benefits.” “.
For some of its products, IKEA already recycles more than 90% of its inputs, which lowers costs in its supply chain, while reducing its carbon footprint, he said. And in its stores, IKEA is already carbon neutral while saving money, having invested more than $4 billion in its renewable energy production.
“Carbon smart is cost smart,” he said. “It has nothing to do with who is president in America.”
And in an interesting twist, IKEA and the new US administration may finally become bedfellows. Even as the furniture company’s climate views and hyper-global sourcing approach clash with Trump, the company also plans to expand both its retail footprint in the U.S. and its local sourcing in the coming years. Giving consumers, workers a boon, Brodin said. , and politicians alike.
“We have a very ambitious plan in the U.S., Brodin told me. Strategy No. 1 is to increase penetration. We have to be where the people are. But we’re also looking at sourcing more in North America. His Not related to the tariff, but because we have a very high share of transport in terms of volume, and we are very dependent on currency.”
“But obviously we are against tariffs,” he added. “We have never experienced a successful period with tariffs at IKEA. At the end of the day, the consumer has to pay the price.”
More news below.
Peter Wenham
peter.vanham@fortune.com
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