Video: Woodrow Clark on Climate & Energy Solutions

Woodrow Clark is Managing Director of Clark Strategic Partners and a co-recipient of the Nobel Peace prize (as part of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change). In this interview with Dr Wayne Visser, Director of CSR International, he discusses solutions to the energy and climate crises we face. The interview took place in Chicago on 7 September 2010.

Video Blog: Nathan Fabian on Climate Change and the Investment Industry

Nathan Fabian is CEO of the Investor Group on Climate Change Australia/New Zealand. In this interview with Dr Wayne Visser, CEO of CSR International, he discusses the role of the financial investment sector in advancing action on climate change. The interview took place at the ACCSR conference in Melbourne on 19 February 2010.

Climate change & COP 15 - Part 3: Leadership response

What we need, therefore, is to strengthen the societal context – though increased public awareness and customer activism – and the market context – through stronger public policy and price incentives. This is what leadership author Manfred De Vries calls the architectural role of leaders – and that is what we see the world’s leaders here in Copenhagen striving to do: to redesign the ‘rules of the game’.

Beyond the societal and market context, however, we also need to enable individual leaders to emerge – both as strategic navigators at the helm of their organisations, and as embedded catalysts at all levels of organisation and society.

We may ask: what types of leaders are we looking for to take us through the climate crisis? There are many theories on leadership styles and traits, but it seems to me that we will need all kinds of leadership to emerge. Times of crisis do call for heroic, charismatic leaders, but quiet, servant leaders are equally needed.

Many leadership traits will come into their own in the years ahead, as climate change intensifies and we transition to a low-carbon economy. We will look to leaders with an ability to craft a compelling alternative vision in the midst of business-as-usual, to think systemically about solutions in the midst of reactionary politics, to call for action in the midst of inertia and to foster hope in the midst of despair.

The good news is we do not have to wait for these leaders to be born. We at CPSL firmly believe – and we are supported by modern leadership research in this – that leaders are made, not born. For 20 years, we have been nurturing leaders to take on the sustainability challenge. Now their time has come, and we start to see them stepping forward, through initiatives like the Corporate Leaders Group on Climate Change and the 1,000 CEOs that have committed themselves and their companies to the Copenhagen Communiqué.

It is true that it will not be easy; nor will all who tackle the challenge, succeed. But that is the challenge of leadership.

I started by saying that we need extraordinary leadership for extraordinary times, and I quoted Unilever CEO, Paul Polman. Now, I would like to end with something else he said, because I believe it captures some of the essence of what it means to be a leader for sustainability. He says, “I hope that the word integrity comes into that. I hope the word long-term comes into that. I hope the word caring comes into that, but demanding at the same time.”

Climate change & COP 15 - Part 2: Leadership crisis

This crisis in trust is closely linked to a crisis in leadership.

A McKinsey survey of global executives found that while three quarters (74%) say the CEO/chair should take the lead on socio-political issues (such as climate change), only half (56%) say the CEO/chair is taking such a lead. What’s more, less than 1 in 10 (8%) think that companies are championing environmental and social causes out of genuine concern.

In the US, almost a third (27%) of executives claim not to be playing any leadership role on public issues like climate change, and only 14% claim to be playing a direct, active role. And yet, almost half (44%) of US executives feel their peers should be taking a leadership role public issues, with only one-seventh believe they are actually doing so.

So much for the numbers; what are the implications for leadership? The same McKinsey survey may give us a clue: Of those who claim not to be playing any role in leadership on public issues, 71% cite ‘business reasons’, while of those who say they are playing a role, 64% cite ‘personal reasons’. This suggests that – in order to have transformational leadership on climate change – we need to look at both the business ‘rules of the game’ and the role of individual leaders.

Interestingly, this conclusion dovetails nicely with the leadership research coming out of academia, which emphasises importance of both the context for leadership and the individual traits of leaders.

Part 3 - The leadership response

... follows tomorrow

Climate change & COP 15 - Part 1: Extraordinary times

In the midst of the UN Climate Negotiations in Copenhagen, I want to talk about leadership, because I believe this climate agenda – and the wider sustainability agenda – will succeed or fail depending on the quality of leadership that emerges - not only this week, but over the coming decade.

Extraordinary times

Let me begin with something that Unilever CEO, Paul Polman, said in a recent interview. He said that “part of leadership is to look reality in the eye”.

Well, at an event such as COP 15, I hardly need remind anyone that the reality we face on climate change is extremely serious. Not only is the problem potentially catastrophic, but the solution requires nothing short of a second industrial revolution.

This is not a problem we can incrementally manage our way out of. It is a crisis that requires extraordinary leadership – the kind of leadership that creates transformational change on a scale and with an urgency that the world has seldom ever seen before in peace time.

Not only do we face this extraordinary challenge, but our trust in the ability of society’s institutions to deliver the solutions is at an all time low. The latest Edelman Trust Barometer (2009) shows that nearly two-thirds of the public (62%) trust corporations less than they did a year ago. In the US, only 38% said they trust business to do what is right—a 20% plunge since last year—and only 17% said they trust information from a company’s CEO.

Part 2: Crisis in leadership

... follows tomorrow

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.

Summaries of 2008 Climate Research

CSR International Research Digest

CLIMATE CHANGE 2008

This digest is currently free to download and gives a sample of what will be available to CSR International members from March 2008.

CONTENTS

1.       Climate Change Regulation Survey (Global: Clifford Chance) (Jan 08)
2.       Climate Change Strategy Survey (Global: McKinsey) (Mar 08)
3.       Climate Change Strategy Ranking (Global: Ceres) (Apr 08)
4.       Climate Change Risks Survey (Global: KPMG) (May 08)
5.       Weather Risks Survey (US/Canada: Storm Exchange/Chicago Mercantile Exchange) (May 08)
6.       Supply Chain Carbon Disclosure Research (Global: Carbon Counts) (June 08)
7.       Green Marketing Report (UK/US/France/ Germany: The Climate Group/Lippincott) (June 08)
8.       Green Logistics Survey (Global: Transport Intelligence) (Sept 08)
9.       Climate Change and Branding Report (UK/US/China: The Climate Group) (Nov 08)
10.   ICT Industry Slow to Tackle Climate Change (Global: Gartner/WWF) (Nov 08)
11.   Climate Change and Job Market Sustainability (EU and US: Financial Times/Harris) (Nov 08)
 
Download: http://www.csrinternational.org/csri_digest_climate_2008.pdf

Regards

Wayne

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.