US President Barack Obama speaks following a roundtable discussion with CEO's on mitigating climate change in the Roosevelt Room of the White House on October 19, 2015. Looking on are: From left: Loretta Rosenmayer of Intren, Gregory Abel of Berkshire Hathaway Energy and Frederick Buie of Keystone Electrical Manufacturing Co. (AFP PHOTO)
WASHINGTON, Oct. 19 (Xinhua) -- The White House said Monday that a total of 81 companies have signed a pledge to reduce greenhouse gas emissions as part of the country's efforts to combat climate change.
Among the companies signing the American Business Act on Climate Pledge are Coca-Cola, Apple, Intel, IBM and Walmart.
The White House said in a statement that these companies have operations in all 50 U.S. states, employing more than nine million people and representing more than three trillion U.S. dollars in annual revenue, with a combined market capitalization of over five trillion dollars.
US President Barack Obama speaks following a roundtable discussion with CEO's on mitigating climate change in the Roosevelt Room of the White House on October 19, 2015. Looking on are: Gregory Abel (C) of Berkshire Hathaway Energy and Frederick Buie of Keystone Electrical Manufacturing Co. (AFP PHOTO)
While voicing expectation for a strong outcome from the upcoming U.N. climate talks in Paris in December, the companies agree to reduce their emissions, increase low-carbon investments, deploy more clean energy, in addition to other actions.
The White House launched the American Business Act on Climate Pledge in July, with 13 U.S. companies such as Microsoft committing a total of 140 billion dollars in new low-carbon investments and more than 1,600 megawatts of new renewable energy at that time.
An independent consortium of long-term investors, created in a White House clean energy investment summit in June, on Monday also announced its first round of investments totaling 1.2 billion dollars through an "aligned intermediary," which will be formally launched and branded in mid-2016, the White House added.
