Samer Salty co-signatory of Letter to The Times on Extinction Rebellion

Sir, The multimillion-pound costs that the Extinction Rebellion protests have imposed on business are regrettable, as is the inconvenience to Londoners. But future costs imposed on our economies by the climate emergency will be many orders of magnitude greater.

Contrary to belief, there is business support for the Extinction Rebellion (XR) agenda. Hard pressure drives change, but even the most committed businesses will need time to respond. We welcome the news that Extinction Rebellion is evolving a new platform, XR Business, to engage business leaders, investors and advisers. To drive things forward, the idea is to convene a meeting of XR activists and experts with business leaders and influencers. Most businesses were not designed in the context of the developing climate emergency. Hence we must urgently redesign entire industries and businesses, using science-based targets. To kickstart the process, businesses should make a declaration that we face a climate emergency and organise a session at a full board meeting to consider the case for urgent action. We will encourage the senior management teams of which we are part to do likewise.

Seb Beloe, partner, WHEB Asset Management; Thomas Bourne, CEO and co-founder, Greenheart Business; Gail Bradbrook, co-founder, and Fiona Ellis, XR Business, Extinction Rebellion; Amy Clarke, co-founder, Tribe Impact Capital LLC; Christopher Davis, chief sustainability officer, The Body Shop International; John Elkington, co-founder, and Louise Kjellerup Roper, CEO, Volans Ventures; Brad Frankel, CEO and co-founder, Flooglebinder; Jake Hayman, CEO, Ten Years’ Time; Jeremy Leggett, founder and director, Solarcentury; Charmian Love and Amanda Feldman, co-founders, Heliotropy; Andy Middleton, founder and chief exploration officer, TYF Group; Safia Minney, founder & former CEO, People Tree Fair Trade Group; James Perry, partner, Snowball LLP; Paul Polman, former CEO, Unilever; Samer Salty, co-founder and managing partner, Zouk Capital LLP; Sir Tim Smit, founder, The Eden Project, and executive chairman, Eden Regeneration; Hermione Taylor, CEO and founder, The Do Nation Enterprise; Diana Verde Nieto, CEO and co-founder, Positive Luxury; Dale Vince, founder, The Ecotricity Group; Bevis Watts, managing director, Triodos Bank UK; Tim Westwell, co-founder and former CEO, Pukka