After a warning from the UN, Suzano must review environmental commitments

Suzano’s president, Walter Schalka, believes that companies and countries should be more ambitious in relation to climate goals. The statement was made after the release of the IPCC (UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) reports.

The executive stated, during the presentation of the company’s quarterly results, that Suzano should review its environmental commitments after warnings from the climate panel. As it is forest-based, the company removes more greenhouse gases from the atmosphere than it emits.

The IPCC document, released last week, pointed out that human activity is altering the Earth’s climate in unprecedented ways, and that some changes are inevitable and irreversible.

“It is no longer possible for companies or countries to announce very long zero carbon targets for 2040, 2050, 2060. We need an immediate reduction in global carbon emissions”, defended Schalka.

In order to have an immediate impact, the executive suggests that organizations set intermediate goals for carbon reduction. “We cannot wait any longer to take action to reverse this situation. We can enter a point of non-reversal, causing tremendous damage in the world”, he declared.

“We are already carbon negative, but we will have to be even more ambitious in relation to the target that was set of [sequestering] 40 million tons of carbon [from the atmosphere] by 2030. We will almost certainly set a target even more ambitious in this regard”, he highlighted.

The pulp giant has been seeking to establish a presence in the market in relation to the ESG (English acronym for good environmental, social and corporate governance) agenda.

Suzano has projects linked to the preservation of biodiversity and, recently, issued debt bonds linked to the goal of raising, to a minimum of 30%, the leadership positions held by women by December 2025, in addition to reducing the use of water from its production.

“We will continue to promote this type of work to mitigate the situation that has arisen with the IPCC in recent days. We can no longer procrastinate that decision for the future. It is our responsibility, as a society and as a company, to adopt policies to mitigate the impact of greenhouse gases and combat climate change,” said Schalka.

The president of Suzano was one of more than 160 businessmen and intellectuals to sign a letter, in June this year, sent to the president of the Chamber, Arthur Lira (PP-AL), asking for the veto of three bills in the environmental area. The authors are against legislative proposals related to changes in environmental legislation, which impact the demarcation of indigenous lands, mining in these areas and illegal occupation of forests.