|
Leader to Leader:
Mobilising Science
There is no more complex
problem today than global warming, and addressing it requires big changes in
economic activities and lifestyles. The temptation is to focus on more
immediate and manageable issues when faced with a problem as difficult as
climate change. With climate change, local implications are uncertain, and
the full consequences will only materialise gradually and in the longer
term. The remedies are as far-reaching. We like to tackle problems that we
believe we can solve. How can we ensure that leaders and citizens grasp the
magnitude of the climate change problem without balking at the decisions to
take?
Science has a big responsibility here, and the world is fortunate to have
the Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) as a scientific
authority to provide advice. The first task of science is to improve our
understanding of climate change and its effects. But this understanding also
has to be communicated to decision-makers and the public at large to prepare
the ground for meaningful action. This requires providing a picture of the
potential impacts of climate change and their likelihood, and formulating
options for mitigating and adapting to climate change. The long-term nature
of climate change and the remaining uncertainties can be addressed by
showing the benefits of action on other criteria besides climate change,
such as for curbing air pollution, reducing energy costs and dependence on
energy imports, and improving the efficiency of the transport system. Where
decision-makers are hesitant to take far-reaching decisions in the face of
what may seem a distant problem, they should be directed towards action that
makes sense on other grounds, while keeping open options for more radical
steps when the time is ripe.
Margot Wallström European Commissioner for the Environment
|
New Academy Review: Volume 3 Number 1
Spring 2004
|
I prefer to think of it
as “climate chaos”. It is more than change. It is already hurting
plants, animals and people all over the world.
Anita Roddick
“Weapons of mass destruction” exist here and now on Planet Earth though
they have not been invented by any superpower.
Jeremy Leggett
Environmental work is good for business. It is our responsibility,
Anders Dahlvig
Leadership is essential in coming to grips with climate change.
Margot Wallström
The international community has taken tiny steps in the right direction
to begin tackling climate change.
Jim Fulton
Only zero throughput of extracted natural capital is sustainable over
evolutionary time (the true long run) – a radical thought, but a
necessary objective, not just for Interface but for the entire
industrial system
Ray Anderson
Dame
Anita Roddick
In recent months,
Sir David King, Britain’s chief scientific adviser, has bluntly warned
that climate change is a more serious threat than terrorism. He also –
just as bluntly – attacked the US Government for ‘failing to take up the
challenge of global warming’.
Because we are failing to take global warming seriously, he says,
“millions more people around the world may in the future be exposed to
the risk of hunger, drought, flooding and diseases such as malaria.”
It’s critical that we in the Northern Hemisphere start to take climate
change seriously. Because we are overwhelmingly responsible for burning
most of the world’s fossil fuels on a daily basis, we are morally
obligated to look in the mirror to find the solution. It is each of us
in the industrial north that have to change. We have to look more at
conservation, and help change our relationship with energy by using
renewable sources and more efficient technology. |
Contents
View from
the Chair
-
Anita Roddick
Guest Editor
Tipping Point on Climate Change
Kaj Embren and Mei Li Han, Respect
Leader to Leader
Climate Change: Will Mankind Manage?
Margot Wallström, European Commissioner for the Environment
Fears Are Overblown: Reducing Emissions is Possible and Profitable
Michael Northrop, Rockefeller Brothers Fund
Climate Change: A Retailer’s Perspective Anders Dahlvig, CEO IKEA
Group
Climbing Mount Sustainability Ray Anderson, Founder and Chairman,
Interface, Inc.
Debating Points
Efficient Solutions to Reduce GHG: The Ecological Tax Reform in Germany
Kai Schlegelmilch, German Federal Ministry for Environment, Nature
Conservation and Nuclear Safety
Cutting Emissions: Taking the First Step Jim Fulton, Suzuki
Foundation
Core Methodology for Actions –
Corporate GHG Targets and Transparency Simon Schmitz, Project
Officer, Energy and Climate, World Business Council for Sustainable
Development
Global Renewable Energy Markets and Policies
Eric Martinot, University of Maryland, School of Public Affairs, College
Park, MD, USA
Verifying Company Level Greenhouse Gas Emissions Inventories: An
Overview of Current Practices and Issues
Brian Dawson and Matt Spannagle, Australian Greenhouse Office
Transport and Global Warming Gases Kenneth Button, Professor of Public
Policy And Director of the Center for Transportation Policy, Operations
and Logistics, George Mason University, USA
Technology, Policy and Climate Change Christian Azar, Department
of Physical Resource Theory, Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden;
Björn A. Sandén, Department of Environmental Systems Analysis,
Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden; and Thomas Sterner Department
of Economics, Göteborg University, Sweden
The Future of Energy Supply: Civilisation at Risk Jeremy Legget,
Chief Executive, Solar Century
Toronto Atmospheric Fund; Philip Jessup, Toronto Atmosphere Fund
The Small Island States: The Challenge of Energy, His Excellency
Ambassador Enele S. Sopoaga, Permanent Representative of Tuvalu to the
United Nations, Vice Chairman of the Alliance of Small Island States
Energy consumption in existing Swedish buildings can be halved -Åke
Persson CEO, AB Fortum Värme, joint owned by Stockholm Stad Olle Ehrlén,
CEO, NCC Construction Sweden AB, Lars Rekke, Director General, – The
Swedish Civil Aviation Administration, Anders Jansson, Group Chief
Executive, Stena Metall,
Maria Ågren, Director General, SMHI
Lars Birve, CEO, MKB Fastighets AB, Håkan Bryngelson, CEO, Vasakrona,
Per-Uno Alm, Founder of RespectEurope
Case Studies
Severn Trent plc: A Partnership Approach to Reducing Climate Change
through Carbon Management Andy Wales, Group Environment and
Sustainable Development Manager, Severn Trent plc
California Policies on Energy and Climate Change, Bentham Paulos
and Marcus Schneider, Energy Foundation
Climate Leaders: Tracking Corporate Leadership on Climate Change
Thomas M. Kerr, Chief of the Energy Supply and Industry Branch, Office
of Air and Radiation, United States Environmental Protection Agency
Manitoba: Towards a Climate Friendly Economy Jane Gray, Senior
Policy Analyst, Executive Council, Manitoba Government
Climate Change Action at Tufts University William Moomaw, PhD and
Sarah Hammond Creighton, Tufts Climate Initiative
Climate Action in the Northeast U.S. States: Can Such a Small Region
Really Make a Difference? Kenneth A. Colburn and Kelly E. Levin,
Northeast States for Coordinated Air Use Management (NESCAUM)
Portland: A Local Approach to Climate Protection Michael
Armstrong, Policy Analyst, City of Portland Office of Sustainable
Development, USA
The Global Sustainable Energy Island Initiative The Honourable
Tom Roper, Climate Institute
Climate Change Policy: Are Governments Getting Down to Business?
Kate Hampton, Manager Policy and Markets Research, Climate Change
Capital
The Carbon Trust: Low Carbon Innovation at Work, Tom Delay, Chief
Executive, The Carbon Trust
NGO Perspective
Long-term International Climate Policies: The Status of the Debate in
Japan Yuri Onodera, Director, Climate Change Programme, Friends of
the Earth, Japan
Climate Change Networks and Organisation
|
Fears Are Overblown: Reducing Emissions is Possible and Profitable
Abstract
Lingering doubt about the world’s ability to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG)
emissions without inflicting serious economic harm remains a major
impediment to addressing climate change. This is especially true in the
U.S., but developing countries and several European states have also
been concerned.
Yet, an appraisal of the real world experience of those who have begun
reducing their emissions of GHGs presents a quite hopeful story. From
these emerging experiences, it appears that policymakers, business
leaders and the public may now have reason to be more confident about
reducing GHG emissions without doing harm. In fact, the body of evidence
growing around the world indicates that GHG emissions can be reduced by
amounts significantly beyond the Kyoto targets - and that these actions
can be profitable.
Examples from leading companies in multiple sectors and from governments
at a variety of jurisdictional levels are cause for optimism.
Michael Northrop
Rockefeller Brothers Fund |
Climbing Mount Sustainability
Abstract
For nearly ten years, my company, Interface, Inc. – multinational
producer of carpet tiles, broadloom carpets, textiles and architectural
products for worldwide commercial and institutional markets – has been
committed to achieving environmental sustainability. We have learned a
lot about transforming our petro-intensive industrial enterprise to
reduce its environmental impacts, eventually to zero. As physicist Amory
Lovins often says, “If it exists, it must be possible.” And to use Alan
AtKisson’s (1999) metaphor of amoeba‑like progress, early movers in
sustainability – people and companies – are the “pseudopod” reaching out
to establish a new foothold for moving the “body” of the industrial
system to a new state – harmony with the natural world on which the
entire economic system is utterly dependent. Interface is an early
mover, seeking to demonstrate the possible.
Ray Anderson, Founder
and Chairman, Interface, Inc.
|
|
Climate Change: A Retailer’s Perspective
Abstract.
One of the first
questions business leaders must ask themselves is: “Is environmental
work good or bad for business?”
The answer to this question determines the level of commitment a company
gives to environmental issues.
If we regard environmental work primarily as a cost, my experience says
that this work will be limited to a minimum. That is, to follow the law,
or – at best – conduct a few PR activities and take corrective action
when a crisis occurs.
To take a more proactive, forceful and credible approach to
environmental issues, we need to see beyond costs and concerns about
short-term profitability. Because in the long-term, environmental work
contributes to increased profitability, more motivated co-workers and a
stronger market position. We’ve experienced this at IKEA - our customers
genuinely feel that our and their values are the same.
At IKEA today we have a strong and well-anchored conviction that
proactive environmental work is good for business. But I readily confess
that this has not always been a smooth ride. We have had many animated
discussions internally. Not so much whether we should do something or
not, but more about how much we should do and how quickly we should do
it.
Anders Dahlvig, CEO IKEA Group
Tufts
University, a mid-sized university with three Massachusetts-based
campuses, has pledged to meet the Kyoto target by reducing its
greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions to 7% below 1990 levels by 2012. Tufts
will further reduce to 10% below 1990 levels by 2020 and by 75% in the
longer term. William Moomaw and Sarah Hammond Creighton, Tufts
Climate Initiative |
Efficient Solutions to Reduce GHG: The Ecological Tax Reform in Germany
Abstract
Germany
considers itself a frontrunner in climate protection policies, at least
in part because its emissions have historically been (and currently
still are) a major contributor to global climate change. In addition, it
is also technically and economically feasible for Germany to implement
measures and technologies that help to reduce greenhouse gases (GHG).
For more than 15 years there has been a broad consensus across German
society that the country should strive for ambitious reduction targets.
It is clear that to achieve such targets the right mixture of efficient
instruments would be required to overcome the barriers - there is no
‘cure-all’ available. As long ago as 1988 there were more than 100
different reduction measures listed in the German government’s Climate
Protection Programme. However, the major economic incentive necessary -
in the form of an Ecological Tax Reform (ETR) - was missing. This was
introduced in 1999 when a new government, largely made up of Greens and
Social Democrats, came to power.
The government considered it crucial to implement this type of reform in
a steady and predictable way, taking small steps to allow for adjustment
and adaptation. A goal during implementation of the reform was to
provide the necessary information about increasing energy taxes to the
consumer for each consumption or investment decision he makes (e.g.
scrapping an old car or buying a new one). The ability to take the
information into account enables the consumer to choose the most
efficient commodity on the market, or the ‘least cost’ scenarios. In
this way the choice is fully up to the consumer directly and,
indirectly, to the entrepreneur and engineer to invent energy-efficient
technologies and equipments. This provides a mechanism to better balance
market competitiveness with environmental impact and social aspects.
Kai Schlegelmilch
German Federal Ministry for Environment, Nature Conservation and
Nuclear Safety |
| |
|
