Energy, aerospace, automotive and oil are some of the business sectors that depend greatly on political decisions on climate issues. To address this, SKF is cooperating with seven other international companies in the Respect Table Initiative, a non-profit, business-led group, chaired by EU Vice President Margot Wallström, that focuses on sustainable development.

One of the key events in 2007 was the United Nations climate change conference in Bali.

“The important issue in Bali was to agree on what to do together in order to cut emissions and deal with climate change,” says Tom Johnstone, president and CEO of SKF.

“To achieve this, we need more than long-term visionary targets,” he says. “That’s too simple. We also need short-term targets on emissions.” Members of the Respect Table Initiative are SKF, Fortum, IKEA, Novo Nordisk, Osram, Reed Elsevier, Triodos Bank and Whirlpool.