Copenhagen climate deal can benefit business and promote development
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A new global deal to tackle climate change will not only be good for business, it is crucial to achieve sustainable growth for the global economy.
As we approach the global climate talks in Copenhagen this December, much debate has focused on the supposed conflicting interests of big business and the climate.
This argument is based on the idea that business does not like change, and in particular does not like change brought about by government policy or regulation. This is a grave misconception, and also underestimates the gravity of the choices we face as business people and citizens.
Business thrives on change. Today's large companies were once only a few people who saw an opportunity arise, new demand that would grow, a change that made something new possible.
Many opportunities were created by new technologies, from the internal combustion engine to the micro-chip. Some of these were driven by demand, food production for example, and many of the most revolutionary were supported by well-designed government policy, such as the construction of railways and the rapid development of mobile telephony.
When these three forces align, economic change accelerates and so does economic growth and wealth creation. A major shift in the economy requires all three.
The agricultural revolution, the industrial revolution, the technology revolution, all provided enormous opportunity and government played a key role in each.
Next revolution
The low-carbon revolution is next. New businesses are already emerging all over the world, focused on low-carbon solutions to energy generation and use, from light bulbs to transport, but they are still at the pioneering stage.
To achieve the scale of investment necessary to make a major change in our economic direction, it must be clear to business that political leaders, from developed and developing countries alike, are committed to this course. Inaction or delay would be disastrous for the climate, but it would also be disastrous economically.
With a clear commitment to the low-carbon industrial revolution, businesses around the world can compete with confidence, invest with certainty, and drive the scale and innovation necessary to make the changes we need to make.
Fundamentally, this is changing the way we invest and changing the direction of the economy, so that we can grow sustainably on the low-carbon path.
For example, in the US, energy efficiency measures alone can save over a trillion dollars, while driving job creation and growth in the short-term, aiding the economic recovery and providing the economic stimulus required to accelerate investment in low-carbon energy generation and use.
Core principles
A global agreement at Copenhagen can deliver three things for business:
1. A clear commitment to emission reduction targets in the developed and developing world to drive technology investment and energy-efficiency measures.
2. A clear commitment to the global pricing of carbon that allows businesses to invest with confidence and at the scale required.
3. A deal that supports, through a mixture of both public and private financing, the infrastructure required to shift to a low-carbon economy.
With these three principles at its core, a global deal signed in Copenhagen can fire the starting pistol for the new industrial revolution - the low-carbon revolution.
