Lufthansa chair: After the hottest August on record, business needs to pursue climate pragmatism not purity

Climate Week NYC arrives at a telling moment. The world has just lived through the hottest August in recorded history, with heatwaves, floods, and wildfires affecting communities across the globe. Yet many business and government leaders have become a lot less vocal on urgent environmental and social challenges. With climate effects multiplying, many lofty net zero commitments have recently come back down to Earth with a bump. 

We have seen missed deadlines for setting meaningful science-based targets, high-value opportunities such as AI have led to increased absolute emissions, and some companies are moving away from goals entirely by declaring they would be unrealistic without wider systemic transformation. 

Humanity has no choice but to confront the climate crisis. The need for action is obvious, as are the consequences of delay, which will be measured in people’s livelihoods as well as corporate balance sheets. Yet there remains a very important business strategy question: whether much-needed political, technological, and economic change will happen sooner or later? And how should companies respond to this commercially, while driving forward genuine transformation on corporate sustainability?

Risks become reality 

This year’s heatwave laden summer in the Northern Hemisphere served as a reminder that we are edging ever closer towards the sharper end of the climate crisis, where predicted threats are now experienced events. People are losing homes and harvests, and the burden often falls hardest on those least able to bear it. There have also been notable knock-on effects on energy security and affordability, directly affecting the transition to more sustainable systems. And the pressure is sure to grow.

In the energy industry – where I........

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