It is with great pleasure that we write to you to invite you to join us for our inaugural Congress of Business (COB) on Wednesday 24 May in Glasgow when we will be joined by speakers from around the globe to focus on the leadership role of business and cities in addressing climate action throughout a day of stimulating content, high-level conversations, networking and – ultimately – progress. COP26 was a historic, collective achievement. With all eyes on Glasgow and the UK Presidency, the world saw almost 200 countries coming together – alongside an unprecedented turnout from the private sector – to commit to act on climate change and forge The Glasgow Climate Pacts, reinforcing our world leading status in tackling the climate crisis, and thus keeping the goal alive of global temperatures from rising more than 1.5 degrees. Though enormous strides were made the focus is now firmly fixed on meeting the targets set out in the various Glasgow named pacts, how we build on those commitments and how we reach them.
Ongoing leadership of businesses and cities is key, and this motivated Glasgow Chamber of Commerce to create COB, hosted in partnership with the British Chambers of Commerce (UK/International network) and supported by Scottish Government and the University of Glasgow, and moderated by Professor Greg Clark CBE.
Our priorities for this inaugural COB will be around the Glasgow Financial Alliance to Net Zero(GFANZ) with a focussed case study on food. We will look at the enabling role of finance in the transition across businesses and cities and the subsequent opportunities for supply chains as a result, through contributions from business leaders including: Baroness Martha Lane Fox, Entrepreneur and President of BCC; Keith Anderson CEO, Scottish Power; Dr Gary Kendal, Natwest, and food entrepreneur Thomasina Miers OBE among others.
The importance of global action was recently reiterated by President Sheikh Mohamed when setting the scene for the COP28 climate summit urging nations to move “beyond setting goals to achieving them”. COB is a vital movement designed to support businesses through thought leadership and peer to peer learning to generate powerful action to collectively build decisions to inspire action which will propel progress towards climate targets. We will work in partnership with future COP host cities, including Dubai later this year at COP28 and on to COP31 to continue this action. We are inviting you our colleagues to be at the forefront of this COB movement and, we urge you to join us either in person or virtually and encourage you to share details of COB with your networks.
If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact my colleagues Alan Busby, Head of Events on alan.busby@glasgowchamberofcommerce.com or Lisa Torrance Circular Glasgow Lead and Co-Producer of COB on lisa.torrance@glasgowchamberofcommerce.com