CEO Mailbag
Obama Most Important Factor to Tackling Climate Change
January 02, 2009 11:05 AM
The News
See complete article from Financial Times on link below
By Fiona Harvey
Published: January 1 2009 19:49 Financial Times
Poznan, a grey industrial city in the west of Poland, was the appropriately bleak venue for United Nations talks last month that marked the halfway point in a two-year effort to forge a new global response to climate change. Delegates from the 180 nations represented were acutely aware that negotiations were stuck in a holding pattern.
Only one topic of conversation had the power to quicken people’s interest – Barack Obama. The US president-elect did not, of course, attend – that would have been an unthinkable breach of protocol. Yet his presence seemed pervasive. The change in the White House promises to be the single most important factor governing the world’s approach to tackling what many governments and scientists regard as the biggest problem of the century.
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/662b698e-d837-11dd-bcc0-000077b07658.html?nclick_check=1
Obama Most Important
January 02, 2009 11:03 AM
The News
Poznan, a grey industrial city in the west of Poland, was the appropriately bleak venue for United Nations talks last month that marked the halfway point in a two-year effort to forge a new global response to climate change. Delegates from the 180 nations represented were acutely aware that negotiations were stuck in a holding pattern.
Only one topic of conversation had the power to quicken people’s interest – Barack Obama. The US president-elect did not, of course, attend – that would have been an unthinkable breach of protocol. Yet his presence seemed pervasive. The change in the White House promises to be the single most important factor governing the world’s approach to tackling what many governments and scientists regard as the biggest problem of the century.
Confederation of British Industry Pushes Climate Change Agenda
January 02, 2009 09:24 AM
The News
CBI sets out four priorities for new global climate change agreement
10 December 2008
To coincide with the UN climate change talks in Poznan, Poland, the CBI today released a position paper setting out its priorities for the agreement to replace the Kyoto Protocol when it expires in 2012.
The paper, "Opportunity Knocks: Business expectations for a global climate change agreement in 2009" (link below), identifies four priorities for British business within the talks that are set to culminate in Copenhagen in December 2009:
1. Creating business opportunity by providing long term confidence through long term emission reduction targets.
2. Improving and expanding market mechanisms to deliver efficient low carbon growth through moving towards a global carbon market that expands the Clean Development Mechanism and envisages the linkage of emissions trading schemes.
3. Building a level playing field to enhance UK competitiveness through recognising the challenge presented by carbon leakage and utilizing sectoral agreements.
4. Unlocking investment to deliver low-carbon innovation through providing public finance for the commercialisation of key technologies such as carbon capture and storage and ensuring the protection of intellectual property rights.
Our Take
The CBI takes on climate change head-on by first recognizing it, then proposing solutions to deal with it. Compare this to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the US equivalent of the CBI, but an organization that refuses to even acknowledge the climate change is an issue. We suspect that the US Chamber of Commerce might have to rethink its position to remain relevant.
