President Obama is enlisting conservative media mogul Rupert Murdoch in his fight to combat climate change, with companies News Corporation and 21st Century Fox signing onto a White House pledge to cut emissions and support the president’s push for a global climate deal in Paris.
Tuesday’s announcement by the White House nearly doubles the number of businesses to sign the climate pledge since July, making News Corp. and Fox, of which Murdoch is the co-chairman, the latest to do so.
The 73 companies that signed the American Business Act on Climate Pledge have operations in all 50 states and represent $4.2 trillion in annual revenue, the White House said Tuesday.
It said the additional businesses — which also includes the likes of Honda, Amazon, MGM Resorts and coal mining giant Rio Tinto — make for a total of 154 companies joining the pledge to fight climate change since the summer. In doing so, the businesses also pledge to support Obama’s goal of securing an international deal to cut global emissions with the United Nations this month in Paris.
The president traveled to Paris on Sunday to kick off two weeks of negotiations in the City of Light to reach a global emissions reduction agreement by Dec. 11.
“By signing the American Business Act on Climate pledge, these companies are voicing support for a strong Paris outcome. The pledge recognizes those countries that have already put forward climate targets, and voices support for a strong outcome in the Paris climate negotiations,” the White House said.
The pledge would support any deal agreed to in Paris by “announcing significant pledges to reduce their emissions, increase low-carbon investments, deploy more clean energy, and take other actions to build more sustainable businesses and tackle climate change.”
Tuesday’s pledges include ambitious, company-specific goals, including: cutting emissions by as much as 50 percent; cutting water use by as much as 80 percent; reaching a zero landfill waste goal; buying 100 percent renewable energy for their facilities; and pursuing a goal of zero net deforestation.
