14 Dec 2023

The company was invited to participate in five forums at the Conference of the Parties. CMPC presented its experience as a leading global company in sustainability matters and discussed the role of conservation and biodiversity in climate crisis mitigation.

CMPC arrived in Dubai as part of the group of businesses to attend COP28. The Chilean company participated shortly after having recently been honored by the Dow Jones Sustainability Index, positioning it as the most sustainable company in the world in the “Paper & Forest Products” category.

The CMPC delegation, led by CEO Francisco Ruiz-Tagle, participated in a series of inaugural talks as one of the initial activities at the COP, including the opening conversation entitled “Alliances for Climate Resilience” and the “Business & Philanthropy” forum that kicked off the climate event.

CMPC was part of COP28 to promote the company’s role as a contributor to climate change mitigation through concrete actions, such as the implementation of the conservation and biodiversity strategy. One of its principal aims was for CMPC to be “nature positive”, i.e., to contribute to slowing down and neutralizing the effects of climate change on the ecosystem to then transform them into positive effects for nature.

“The increase in global warming persists as an ongoing dilemma being jointly fought across the board. As CMPC, we’re here at this COP because we want to offer our nature-based solutions and contributions to the creation of natural fibers. We do this while highlighting the role and importance of conservation and biodiversity. We also aspire to participate in the most meaningful discussions on climate change and learn from the best practices found in our industry today,” said CMPC CEO Francisco Ruiz-Tagle.

It should be noted that in the run-up to COP28, Ruiz-Tagle, recently named CEO of the Year in Sustainability by the Council of the Americas, participated in the annual meeting of the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD), which brought together more than 500 senior executives from leading global companies who addressed the challenges and responsibility that come with sustainable development. At the meeting, Ruiz-Tagle was elected as vice president of the organization, which includes more than 220 leading companies in the world, making it one of the leading global platforms in search of solutions to the major problems affecting our planet.

The participation of the Chilean company began on December 5 at the Estonian Pavilion as part of a panel called “Artificial Intelligence is transforming the wood industry in Chile”. The case of CMPC and the use it had made of AI-based precision forestry technology in operations was presented.

Then on Wednesday, December 6, CMPC was part of the “Responsible Forest Management Forum: The Role of the Private Sector in Saving Our Forests and the Road to the Treaty of Belém”. The forum, organized by the Norwegian Global Compact, outlined the roadmap for COP30 to be held in Belém, Brazil. It brought together senior executives, political authorities, and experts to catalyze private sector commitments to tropical forest challenges.

On Saturday, December 9, the company attended the “Meeting on Biodiversity at COP28” organized by the United Nations Global Compact in which the organization’s priorities and planned activities around biodiversity and nature were addressed.

That same day it also participated in one of the cycles run by Global Compact Chile as part of a working group to address “The Future of Biodiversity in Latin America: A Focus on Sustainable Communities”. The objective of the forum was to discuss the role of biodiversity risk management for companies, based on the launch of the TNFD (Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures) and the Global Biodiversity Framework approved at COP15.

CMPC’s role culminated with its presence at the Chilean Pavilion located in the Blue Zone of COP28 where it participated in the panel discussion entitled “Natural Capital in Public and Private Decision-Making”. Here the company highlighted an important discussion going on worldwide; the understanding that nature is finite and the lines of business that depend on biodiversity must change the value they place on it. The goal was to design more targeted business models that also benefit the environment.

The focus of COP28

The 28th Conference of the Parties held in Dubai, United Arab Emirates ran from November 30 to December 12. It was expected to welcome more than 70,000 attendees from more than 200 countries and organizations to negotiate new environmental goals and present their proposals to jointly combat global warming.

This latest edition of the climate event, considered to be the most important on the planet, aimed to deliver the first global assessment of the implementation of the Paris Agreement signed in 2015, and thus outline the action plan to achieve the goal of limiting global warming to 1.5°C. 

Along these lines, COP28 had four main axes: accelerate the energy transition to reduce emissions by 2030; reaffirm financial commitments to fight climate change and make it more affordable for the entire globe; put nature, people, lives and livelihoods at the heart of climate action; and make this COP the most inclusive in terms of working together and making decisions with and for local communities and indigenous peoples.