[Tom Idle, Editor, Sustainable Business - www.sustainablebusinessnetwork.net]

Delegates and speakers at this month’s Green Monday event reflected on what did and didn’t happen in Copenhagen. Kingfisher’s director of social responsibility, Ray Baker, was baffled by the negative language to come out of COP15 – “meaningful agreement”, for example. 

At Kingfisher, the umbrella organisation for brands such as B&Q, they prefer to use terms such as “let’s just do it”, said Baker, wishing that negotiator in Copenhagen could use the more positive “language of business”.

He added that his six million customers a week and 83,000 staff didn’t have any expectations of what might happen at COP15. “They don’t relate to tones of COB2, but they do relate to saving cash,” he said.

But Baker recognises the need for world governments to set a framework and said that business does want regulation – “it helps” – adding that the Prince of Wales’ Corporate Leaders on Climate Change is “testimony that business wants to interface with government”.

Steve Howard’s glass was definitely half-full. As CEP of lobbying outfit, The Climate Group, he came away from
the Danish capital with many of the elements in place that they aimed to achieve 12 months previously. The world’s biggest economies didn’t promise to cut carbon by 80% by 2050, but crucially for Howard, “we did get a space for targets in the agreement”.

The UN needs to “up its game”, he added, stating that the body was “ill-equipped to prepare heads of state” for negotiations. “A lot of people thought they could retire after COP15, but it’s a new starting point,” he said.

DECC’s Chris Dodwell was similarly positive. “Every major economy in the world now has domestic commitments...that wouldn’t have happened a year ago,” he said. “We are on an irreversible process.

However, the Accord must be broader, deeper and stronger – and the negotiating process must be improved, he added. “Having Obama versus a professional negotiator from China is not helpful.”

Green Mondays is going from strength to strength – purposefully bringing together climate change leaders to discuss the issues that matter most to UK business.

[Tom Idle, Editor, Sustainable Business - www.sustainablebusinessnetwork.net]