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Businesses form basis for UN climate talks

Take a deep breath. You’re the first human beings ever to breathe air comprised of 400 parts per million (ppm) of carbon dioxide.

This was the meditation offered by Christina Figueres, Executive Secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) during Monday’s opening address at the 19th United Nations Climate Change Conference in Warsaw, Poland.

400ppm is not a special number, to most it is an unquantifiable milestone in humanity’s assault on our Earth’s atmosphere, but just this weekend the Philippines experienced a storm that could mark the “new norm” for weather events worldwide, according to the Philippines Climate Change Commissioner Yeb Sano.

However, whether this disaster was a result of climate change would be near impossible to confirm and scientists’ predictions remain cautious, although many agree that such storms are only likely to increase in ferocity.

This is a crisis that we cannot afford to ignore, yet, even discounting the sceptics, I wouldn’t blame the majority of the climate-weary public if they paid little attention to this fortnight’s events. The conference aims to secure new commitments to climate change targets by 2015, but expectations are low, as national priorities of individual countries vary significantly.

Even host country Poland seem apathetic, staging a global coal summit in parallel to the conference in a decision so farcical, it could have been made by Mr Bean.

However, calling for a clarification of finances and a mobilisation of resources to support low carbon development, the conference is making a bold move towards common sense by inviting businesses to engage in discussion with UN leaders.

Today, Figueres urged businesses to “start engaging proactively on the international climate agreement” and whilst businesses will not be included within negotiations, they will be provided with a formal opportunity to make recommendations on how the negotiations should evolve, at the Caring for Climate Business Forum in the second week of the summit.

Talks will likely centre around the financing of sustainable low carbon development following the 2009 Copenhagen pledge of $100 billion per year to assist developing countries from 2020. To date, hard-up governments have only raised $7.5 million towards this Green Carbon Fund and are looking to private business to significantly enhance climate investment.

However, cooperation extends beyond the private purse and whilst many companies already engage in sustainable practices that have seen significant reductions in carbon emissions, thought must also be given to the use of their products.

CEO of Unilever, Paul Polman, said, “Our biggest greenhouse gas impact is associated with the use of our products; for example, when energy is used to heat water for showering and laundry. Tackling this will require a wider transformation to a low carbon economy.”

Ultimately, it will take a global collaboration between government, business and society to successfully achieve a low carbon economy, and whilst Warsaw endeavours to build foundations for a new international climate change agreement in 2015, with six years remaining before 2020, will it be enough?

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Lindsay Gill .