The Low Carbon Revolution: It’s Closer Than You Think

A few days ago, the UK government announced its Low Carbon Transition Plan, which will revolutionize the British economy. A few weeks ago, the Corporate Leaders Group on Climate Change launched its Copenhagen Communique, calling for a bold global policy deal. Less than a month ago, the US house of representatives voted to bind the world's largest economy to cutting carbon emissions by 17% from 2005 levels in 2020 and 83% in 2050. The revolution is here! Let's look at these harbingers of change in a bit more detail.

The implications of the UK's plan, announced by Ed Miliband on 15 July, are that Britain will cut its greenhouse gas emissions to 34% below 1990 levels by 2020. Among other things, this means that the UK will move from 5.5% renewable energy today to 30% in 2020, with an additional 10% coming from nuclear and clean coal. That's 600% growth in just 11 years, creating 400,000 new green jobs.

The Copenhagen Communique was launched on 29 June by the Prince of Wale's Corporate Leaders Group on Climate Change, which is convened by the University of Cambridge Programme for Sustainability Leadership (www.cpsl.cam.ac.uk) . The Communique, expected to be signed by 500 of the world's largest companies across all G20 countries, calls for "an ambitious, robust and equitable global deal on climate change that responds credibly to the scale and urgency of the crises facing the world today", including "a reduction of 50-85% by 2050" of greenhouse gases.

In addition to establishing a cap and trade system that is the heart of the 1,200-page US climate bill, the measures approved by the house would require power companies to produce 15% of their electricity from wind and solar energy. This starts to turn Obama's campaign rhetoric - to reduce climate-altering carbon dioxide emissions by 80% by 2050, and invest $150 billion in new energy-saving technologies - into action.

All this is happening before the crucial Copenhagen multi-lateral talks in December. The message is clear: progressive business and governments have seen the writing on the wall, and are not waiting for the bureacrats to catch up. Nobody should be holding their breath. The low-carbon revolution is well underway. The only question now is who will be the winners and losers. Smart governments and companies are betting on first-mover advantage.

CSR Reflections on Davos (Day 2)

A year after Bill Gates famously called for a new model of "creative capitalism" at Davos, it seems that business (especially the banks) took him a bit too literally. Of course, Gates didn't mean creative loans and hedge fund activities, but his speech stands in stark contrast to this year's "crisis capitalism" mood.

Despite Tony Blair's reassurances that "the free enterprise system has not failed, the financial system has failed", the most consistent refrain echoing through the chilly corridors of the World Economic Forum on Day 2 was that capitalism needs bringing back into line. The adolescent years of free market rebels without a cause are over. (I wish I believed them!)

On Day 1, all eyes seemed to be on the bankers. On Day 2, the stakes were raised and the US was in the spotlight. A number of delegates were talking about the failure of US-led capitalism and even Bill Clinton was nodding. When asked about Wen Jiabao's thinly veiled criticism of America over the crisis, he said: "The Chinese premier was right: It all started in the United States."

Somewhat incongruously, Valerie Jarrett, speaking as President Obama's representative in Davos, told delegates that his message can be conveyed in one word: "responsibility". That's encouraging but not terribly helpful. What does it mean? Maybe the test will literally be "the ability to repond" by policians and CEOs. Too little too late some say, but watch this space.

One place to start, according a WEF report released is clean energy investment, which they claim needs to more than triple to $515bn (£360bn) a year to stop greenhouse gas emissions reaching levels deemed unsustainable by scientists. At least that's a message Obama seems to be taking on board.

At a corporate level, at least one good news story of response-ability emerged. US firm Tupperware Brands Corp said it is unlikely to lay off staff or cut costs. Chief executive Rick Goings admonished that "the last thing to cut is your talent." Let's hope other CEOs are listening, although I seriously doubt it.

The annual Philanthropic Lunch, with its predictable crowd of Bill-spotters (including the Gates and Clinton varieties), seems to me a bit like a doing a band-aid dance at a chainsaw massacre party. At least it produced a pearl from Gates - philanthropy is fun and fulfilling! Well, if anyone would know, its the world's biggest philanthropist ever, right?

Then again, wouldn't it be better to improve capitalism as a system, so that we don't need to rely so much on uber-philanthropists' need for a warm-fuzzy endorphine fix? Why don't we give responsible capitalism a try first, and then we can talk about something a bit more creative after that? How about it - do we have a deal, Bill?

Obama moves beyond climate spin

"It's a little bit funny, this feeling inside" ... We are so used to being disappointed by politicians that the world seems a little out of joint when they actually meet or exceed our expectations.

Yesterday, in what he described as "first steps", Obama directed the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to reconsider the Bush administration's denial of a 2007 request by California and 13 other states to implement strict new limits on tailpipe emissions that contribute to global warming. He also directed the Department of Transportation to follow through on Congressional legislation to raise existing fuel economy standards on new cars and lorries by 40 percent beginning in 2011.

Admittedly, it is still very much the honeymoon period for Obama, and every president has their 100-day plan to impress. Even so, Obama's choice to act swiftly on climate change is heartening. A number of things seem significant about his announcement:

1. Obama has turned environmental NGOs into his allies - he practically had them queing up to sing his praises, from the Environmental Defense Fund and the Pew Center on Climate Change to Greenpeace.
   
2. Obama has cross the party divide and made the environmentally progressive Californian governer Schwarzenegger into an ally as well, which bodes well for the future.
3. Obama has virtually accused his predecessor (and the oil and motor industry lobby) of climate change denial, saying "my administration will not deny facts; we will be guided by them".
4. And finally, Obama has made a bold declaration that "America is ready to lead" on climate change. Given their current position as laggards, they will have to cover a huge amount of ground in the coming 12 months to give that statement any substance.

The months and years ahead - especially Obama's promise to introduce a cap-and-trade system and the world's hope that the US will play a productive role in reaching a post-Kyoto deal - will give us plenty of opportunity to test (and no doubt criticise) Obama's commitment. But for now, I think we should relish the winds of change blowing - they don't come too often.

What Obama's inauguration speech means for CSR?

Having just watched the inauguration of Obama, it is hard not to feel that we have just witnessed a geopolitical (perhaps even a psycho-spiritual) shift. But what will this mean for corporate sustainability and responsibility?

The speech was notable from a CSR perspective in a number of ways:

1. Obama's acknowledgement of the irresponsibility of capital markets and the need to regulate them, which should lead to some reigning in of "casino capitalism";
   
2. Obama's repeated mention (twice I think) of the need to invest in renewables (although I also noticed the "harness the soil" comment, which presumably means fossil fuels);
   
3. Obama's emotional identification with the marginalised populations of the US and the world, which should lead to a prioritisation of social issues; and
   
4. Obama's clear desire for America to demonstrate its leadership in the world, including in the area of climate change, which should lead to progress in the post-Kyoto deal.
   

Then again, as one BBC commentator pointed out, Obama needs to convince us all that he is not just good at words, but at actions as well. The next 100 days will, I believe, give us a much clearer picture of Obama's likely influence on the global CSR agenda.

(For those interesting in something a bit more creative on the subject, I have written a new poem about Obama's inauguration, which is posted here:

http://waynevisser.blogspot.com/2009/01/poem-on-obamas-inauguration.html)