Michael de Laine

By Michael de Laine, The Copenhagen Voice, 26 May 2009

Global business leaders closed the World Business Summit on Climate Change, held in Copenhagen, with a call for ambitious global action on climate change. Welcoming the proposals, Danish Prime Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen insisted that the world needs a new global climate agreement now.

In closing the World Business Summit on Climate Change, held in Copenhagen over the past three days, global business leaders issued a call for ambitious global action on climate change.

The business leaders announced in a document named the Copenhagen Call that a new global climate treaty must set bold targets for emissions reductions by 2020 and 2050, limiting the average global rise in temperature to a maximum of 2 degrees Celsius compared to pre-industrial levels. This requires immediate and substantial action leading to a cut of around 17 Giga tons in emissions by 2020 compared with a business-as-usual scenario, they said.

“Emissions reduction at this scale will profoundly affect business, but the Copenhagen Call states that business leaders stand ready to make those changes and support ambitious political decisions that support economic recovery and safeguard the planet,” said the Copenhagen Climate Council, which arranged the summit.

The Copenhagen Call sets out the elements that business leaders believe are required when forging an effective new global climate treaty.

“The ambition of the Copenhagen Call shows that business need not be a conservative voice on climate change,” said Tim Flannery, chair of the Copenhagen Climate Council. “Many of the businesses represented at this significant event in the lead-up to COP15 want brave decisions that will tackle this most wicked of problems.”

Presented to the Danish Prime Minister, Lars Løkke Rasmussen, and Yvo de Boer, the Executive Secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), the Copenhagen Call will be taken forward by them during the last six months of negotiations up to the UN Climate Change Conference (COP15) in December.

“Economic recovery and urgent action to tackle climate change are complementary – boosting the economy and jobs through investment in the new infrastructure needed to reduce emissions,” the Copenhagen Call stated.

According to Erik Rasmussen, who founded the Copenhagen Climate Council, “Reducing the emissions that until now have been so linked to our economic growth and betterment will be an enormous, unprecedented global challenge, but it will also provide significant opportunities for sustainable growth, green jobs, development and innovation.”

The business leaders see six steps that must be implemented when building a firm foundation for a sustainable economic future.

* Agreement on a science-based greenhouse gas stabilization path with 2020 and 2050 emissions reduction targets that will achieve it;

* Effective measurement, reporting and verification of emissions performance by businesses;

* Incentives for a dramatic increase in financing low-emission technologies;

* Deployment of existing low-emission technologies and the development of new ones;

* Funds to make communities more resilient and able to adapt to the effects of climate change; and

* Means to finance forest protection.

“The Copenhagen Call provides helpful guidance to governments as negotiations progress to seal an ambitious climate deal in Copenhagen,” said Danish Minister of Climate and Energy, Connie Hedegaard. “It commits key international businesses and CEOs to take action to address climate change. It is my sincere hope that the international business community will follow up on this important call with concrete proposals for realistic mechanisms and tools that will help close a truly global climate agreement less than seven months from now. Constructive ideas must be tabled in the next two to three months.”

“Even though international business is suffering from the economic crisis, your statement, the Copenhagen Call, is very clear,” said the Danish Prime Minister during his closing address to the climate summit. “You tell governments to be ambitious in their pursuit of a new global climate agreement.

“I would like to thank your for that clear call. Your words are sweet music in my ears. It is now we need a new global climate agreement. Not just because of the dangers to our climate, but also because we need to build our future growth. The climate agenda is important not in spite of the economic crisis, but even more so because of it.”

Rasmussen would not go into detail with each recommendation, but he gave his overall response.

“Developed countries must lead the way by committing themselves to reducing emissions by at least 80% in 2050 compared to 1990,” he said.

But equally important are ambitious medium-range targets by 2020 and beyond.

“The EU is ready to cut emissions by 30% by 2020 compared to 1990 as part of a global agreement,” Rasmussen said. “Other industrialised countries must follow suit with comparable efforts. But we need action by emerging economies as well. The developing countries will have to reduce their emissions way below the business-as-usual level by 2020 and stabilise their emissions thereafter.

“All this will not be easy. It will be difficult, it will be hard, but we must do it.”

The Danish Prime Minister said efforts and measures to reach the targets must be transparent and clear. Transparency is also a precondition for effective market-based systems that can facilitate investments in the economies with the greatest reduction potential.

“The developing countries face a particular challenge,” Rasmussen said. “We must provide funds to help them transform to low-carbon economies. New technologies will be crucial. Forest and better land use must be part of the package. International business will play an important role in dissemination of technology to the developing countries based on funds.”

He added that mobilizing private-sector innovation is pivotal. About 85% of investments come from business, and the private sector delivers the products and services that enable consumers to make low-carbon choices in their everyday life.

“Unleashing the potential of the private sector holds the promise for a better future,” the Danish Prime Minster said.

“You hold in your hands the key to reshaping the world by bringing low-carbon products and solutions to the market,” Rasmussen added. “Governments cannot and should not do that. You can develop new technologies, disseminate them on the market. Governments cannot.”

But governments can create the right incentives for promoting low-carbon technologies, by cutting subsidies on energy consumption, by taxing inefficient and polluting products, and by financing research and development.

“To have success with our ambitious climate agenda we must focus on possibilities, not on doomsday scenarios,” Lars Løkke Rasmussen said. “Here, your contribution is crucial in making it possible to seal the deal in Copenhagen in December.”

Click here to read the full Copenhagen Call document.

Click here to read the pre-presentation copy of the Danish Prime Minister’s closing address to the climate summit.