Climate change is forcing companies of all sizes to rethink the way they do business.. to find ways to sustain growth in a low, rather than high, carbon economy.
RICHARD SHARMAN, KPMG Carbon Advisory Group
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Climate leaders
View interview - Dr. Hamadoun Touré, Secretary General, International Telecommunications Union (ITU
"ITU wants to ensure that climate change is addressed in a standardised manner, that it is measured with agreed standards... Even though information and communication technology is not really part of the problem, it is part of the solution and we intend to play that vital role that ICT can play in combatting climate change".View interview - Yvo de Boer, Executive Secretary, UNFCCC
The UNFCCC was set up to begin to consider what can be done to reduce global warming and to cope with whatever temperature increases are inevitable.“Eighty-five percent of the funds that are required to reduce climate change will come from the private sector. Thus, the government needs to create a policy that will compromise with private businesses so each can attain the environment policy they need.”
View interview - Paul Clements Hunt, Head, UNEP FI
UNEP FI is a global partnership between UNEP and the financial sector to understand the impacts of environmental and social considerations on financial performance.
“Large financial corporations have realised that climate change isn’t just a risk, it is profitable.”
View interview - Georg Kell, Executive Head of the United Nations Global Compact
"Any company coming from an emerging market that wants to become a world leader - needs to get on top of this agenda""Caring for Climate" is positioned as a voluntary and complementary action platform for those Global Compact participants who want to demonstrate leadership on the climate change issue. It shows how committed business leaders can advance practical solutions, shape public opinion and government attitudes.
View interview - Rokus L Van Iperen, Chief Executive Officer, Océ N.V.
A leading provider of document management and printing for professionals, Océ has a long history of environmental awareness and continues to take an innovative approach to sustainability. "Our aim is to continuously reduce the eco footprint of our industry."
View interview - Stephen Barnett, President, The Nickel Institute.
Representing 24 companies which together produce more than 90% of the world’s annual nickel output, Stephen discusses nickel's role in sustainability and climate change mitigation, life-cycle assessment and recycling. "The industry is striving to invest in new technologies which will reduce enery consumption both today and for the long term"
View interview - Mindy S. Lubber, President of Ceres
“Climate Leadership is looking at climate as a very real risk and opportunity and changing business practices to address it - and doing so at the highest level of a firm” Ceres is the leading U.S. coalition of investors and environmental leaders working to improve corporate environmental, social and governance practices. She also directs the Investor Network on Climate Risk (INCR), an alliance that coordinates U.S. investor responses to the financial risks and opportunities posed by climate change.
View interview - Lynette Thorstensen, Communications Director, WBCSD
“If you don’t fully understand the risks then your business is at great risk in itself - indeed your profitability”The World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) provides business leadership as a catalyst for change toward sustainable development.
View interview - Ernst Ligteringen, CEO of Global Reporting Initiative (GRI)
"If you report too narrowly on climate change, you miss very important dimensions"The Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) has pioneered the development of the world’s most widely used sustainability-reporting framework and is committed to its continuous improvement and application worldwide.
View interview - Todd Krieble, Senior member of staff with the New Zealand Environment Ministry
“We in New Zealand want to use the environment as an economic advantage. We have a biophysical based economy that’s centred on agriculture and tourism and if we can get that right from a clean and green point of view that that’s an economic advantage for us.”
View interview - Thornn Sveinbjarnardottir, Environment Minister, Iceland
“The Climate Neutral Network is an opportunity not just to showcase what we can do or what we have done but also to show leadership and get more countries, cities and companies to join in.”View interview - Roberto Dobles, Minister of Environment and Energy, Costa Rica
“We are introducing private companies to a new concept called the ‘climate quality factors’. We are trying to persuade them to use new market trends where consumers will eventually be preferring low carbon goods and services.” View interview - Nathalie Kosciusko Morizet, Secretary of State to the Environment, France
"Last autumn France launched a new environmental campaign which imposed many inventive, if not radical, ideas on combating climate change. It envelops a change on several aspects of everyday life from public transportation, personal automobiles and housing." View interview - Maciej Nowicki, Minister of the Environment, Poland
"This year Poland will host the world conference on the convention of climate change in Poznan in December of 2008. That will be an excellent opportunity for Poland to accelerate all types of reduction of CO2 emissions.” “Poland is an exception in the world scale because we produce energy almost only on hot coal and we must reduce the process step by step. We must develop renewable energy resources but we must also improve our efficiency. “
View interview - Kimmo Tiilikainen, Minister of Environment, Finland
“Emissions from private transportation are high and we need to reduce a lot of them so we encourage people through taxation to buy cars with lower emissions”View interview - Juan Somavia, Director General, ILO
The International Labour Organization (ILO) is devoted to advancing opportunities for women and men to obtain decent and productive work in conditions of freedom, equity, security and human dignity. “ILO has created the Green Jobs Initiative which employs a public policy that pairs government workers with the workers coping with transition”.
View interview - Joao Capobianco, Brazilian Deputy Minister
“Brazil is different from developed countries and developing countries in that it relies mostly on hydropower which has no emissions. The greatest issue Brazil faces is halting deforestation.” View interview - Heather Allen, UITP
UITP is the international organisation for public transport authorities and operators, policy decision-makers, scientific institutes and the public transport supply and service industry. “In the developing world and even within the developed world, public transport is not seen as being as much as an important actor in the environmental programs as it should be.”
View interview - Erik Solheim, Minister of the Environment and International Development, Norway
“The big challenge for Norway is to reduce the carbon emissions from oil and gas production and from industries related to oil and gas. We believe the main tool of the future will be CO2 capture and storage.”View interview - Abyd Karmali, Managing Director and Global Head of Carbon Emissions, Merrill Lynch
As part of its corporate citizenship campaign, Merrill lynch encourages investments that are both economically and environmentally sustainable with interests in carbon emissions as well as other green research. “Merrill Lynch is a lead sponsor in the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP). It is a lead forum for dialogue between the financial markets and companies to discuss the physical impacts of climate change”
Aida Greenbury, Director, Sustainability and Stakeholder Engagement, APP
Aida draws attention to the fact that environmental and social issues are inseparable and that APP are now tackling forest biodiversity protection by working with the Indonesian government to address the poverty which gives rise to illegal logging in the first place. "APP is the first pulp and paper company in the world who conducted a dual approach in carbon and social footprint assessment to develop a baseline to further improve our sustainability strategy."
View video clip - Achim Steiner, Executive Director of UNEP
Achim Steiner, Executive Director of UNEP, discusses the leadership role of business in the fight against climate change, in the run up to the Bali conference.USA will intensify climate cooperation with UN
12 Mar 2009
A framework for climate change and global equity
Professor Jeffrey D Sachs, Director of The Earth Institute at Columbia University, outlines a framework for climate change and global equity. Read More >>Climate change is unequivocal
R K Pachauri, Chairman of the IPCC, sets out some key findings from the IPCC's recent Fourth Assessment Report. Read More >>Caring for Climate: The Business Leadership Platform
Georg Kell, Executive Director of the UN Global Compact, takes a closer look at Caring for Climate: The Business Leadership Platform. Read More >>Partnerships and climate change
Dr Aled Jones of the Cambridge Programme for Industry says partnerships allow governments to implement poicies to drive change and business to respond rapidly. Read More >>Investors: A new world of risk and opportunity
Mindy S Lubber, Director of INCR, and Russell Read, California Public Employees’ Retirement System, look at the pressure put on companies to make climate change a priority issue by investors. Read More >>Links and resources
Climate Counts
Website aimed at consumers that rates company efforts on mitigating climate change.
Climate Change: Followers and Leaders
An analysis of policy and performance across the FTSE 350 by the Carbon Neutral Company.
The Global 100
Launched in 2005, the annual Global 100 Most Sustainable Corporations in the World is unveiled each year at the World Economic Forum in Davos.
AccountAbility
AccountAbility works to develop new thinking, tools and connections that enable individuals, institutions and alliances to respond better to global challenges.
International Climate Leaders discuss climate change mitigation
An EPA industry-government partnership that works with companies to develop long term comprehensive climate change strategies.
The Climate Leadership Programme
Developed in association with The Climate Group and Duke University to help high level business executives understand how to seize the business advantage in addressing global climate change.
Business Environment Leadership Council (BELC)
The largest US based association of corporations focused on addressing the challenges of climate change set up by the Pew Center.
World Business Council for Sustainable Development
A CEO-led, global association of some 200 companies dealing exclusively with business and sustainable development.
Global Compact
The UN Global Compact is a strategic policy initiative for businesses that are committed to aligning their operations and strategies with ten universally accepted principles in the areas of human rights, labour, environment and anti-corruption. By doing so, business, as a primary agent driving globalization, can help ensure that markets, commerce, technology and finance advance in ways that benefit economies and societies everywhere.
