Kuehne + Nagel joins Development and Climate Alliance

December 20, 2019: Kuehne + Nagel is joining the Development and Climate Alliance, which was launched in 2018 by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development in cooperation with the Research Institute for Applied Knowledge Processing and the German Society for International Cooperation. As an institutionalised platform, the project links interested parties and supporters with providers and developers of offset projects.

German federal minister Gerd Muller stated, "Climate change has long been the question of human survival. The industrialised countries, in particular, have a special responsibility. It is not only politics that is called upon to act, but also the private sector. With the Development and Climate Alliance, we have created a platform for this. I am very pleased that Kuehne + Nagel, one of the world's leading logistics providers, has decided to join the alliance. This is a major step and shows that environmental protection and entrepreneurial action go hand in hand."

Kuehne + Nagel joining the alliance is part of its Net Zero Carbon programme launched in September 2019. Direct Kuehne + Nagel CO2 emissions that cannot be avoided will be fully compensated as of 2020. In addition, Kuehne + Nagel has decided to proactively address the CO2 footprint of the transportation services performed by its suppliers – airlines, shipping lines, and haulage companies by 2030. The Net Zero Carbon programme leverages three fields of action: detection, reduction, and compensation of CO2. Kuehne + Nagel is investing in various nature-based CO2 compensation projects, where carbon is being taken from the atmosphere. These voluntary compensation measures are in line with the 17 goals of the United Nations (UN) for Sustainable Development (SDGs). The SDGs, set in 2015 by the United Nations General Assembly and intended to be achieved by the year 2030, is part of UN Resolution. 

Otto Schacht, member of the management board of Kuehne + Nagel International AG, responsible for seafreight, commented, "With its Net Zero Carbon programme, Kuehne + Nagel acknowledges – as a first mover in the logistics industry – the responsibility it has for the environment, for the ecosystem and essential for the people. By joining the Development and Climate Alliance, we support the goals of the German Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development. As a globally operating company, we are convinced that the private sector must also make its contribution to environmental protection."

The CO2 emissions are offset by financing high-quality projects in developing and emerging economies. As well as climate action, these projects promote economic and technological advances and improve the living conditions of local people. In this way, they also contribute to the achievement of both the Paris Climate Agreement and the 2030 Agenda. 

The Paris Agreement is an agreement within the United Nations Framework Convention on climate change, dealing with greenhouse-gas-emissions mitigation, adaptation, and finance, signed in 2016.

Several hundred supporters have already signed up to the Alliance – companies, associations, public authorities, project developers, offset providers and civil society actors.