Times of India , Tuesday, April 22, 2008

Correspondent : Staff Reporter

SINGAPORE: Businesses should spur governments into greater action against global warming and not let a global economic downturn derail efforts to tackle climate change, UN officials said on Tuesday. Achim Steiner, executive director of the UN Environment Program, said businesses should take the lead in finding solutions to global warming even as international climate negotiations grind on with many countries unwilling to make the first move. "Business prides itself on being able to read the future better ... than governments can. And I think this is perhaps true," Steiner said. Steiner was speaking in Singapore at the UNEP-organised Business for the Environment summit, which gathered more than 500 business executives and environment experts to discuss ways that corporations can help fight climate change. The event was co-organised by the U N Global Compact, a program that encourages environmentally and socially responsible business practices. Georg Kell, head of the program, also said the private sector should show governments the way forward. "Business can show that solutions are feasible, that solutions are possible, and thereby prepare the ground for governments to be proactive where they have not been," Kell said. He said that the technologies to increase efficiency were already there, but that the world needed to harness the global trading system to better diffuse such technologies. He cited some estimates as saying that future energy growth could be reduced 50 percent if the world were to apply existing clean technologies everywhere. Kell also said that despite the "turbulent times" the world is in, governments and companies must respond with greater commitment to fighting climate change. "Energy and food prices are skyrocketing. The prospect of a recession is very real in many parts of the world," he said. "I also believe that economic downturns, cyclical challenges, will not derail this agenda." Kell said that a major economic recession would offer more opportunities for businesses to search for ways to maximize efficiency by introducing new technologies and shifting toward low carbon approaches. UNEP's Steiner said U N-led climate talks in Bangkok, Thailand, earlier this month showed that international climate negotiations were in their "most difficult phase" and that deep divisions existed. The Bangkok discussions were aimed at concluding a new global warming pact by the end of 2009 to control greenhouse gas emissions and stop rising temperatures from triggering an environmental disaster. Negotiators faced wide divisions between rich and developing countries over how to slash greenhouse gases. Steiner said he believes that the lack of agreement in Bangkok was a "warning sign." "For governments to reconvene and essentially spend much of the week rearticulating reasons why others have to move first before one would move oneself is at best, disconcerting, and at worst, a sign that we are in deep trouble."

SOURCE : Times of India, Tuesday, April 22, 2008