How do we stop dangerous climate change? Keep moving!
March 09, 2015
Calls to overthrow the political and economic system are misguided, argues George Blacksell – the capacity to prevent climate change already exists, if we only work together.
Last month I participated in a debate as part of the Cambridge Climate Forum, with the motion, “this house believes that the current political and economic system prevents the fundamental changes needed to stop dangerous climate change”. Joined by Dr. Rupert Read, the Green Party candidate for Cambridge, I was for the opposition.
As a debating novice, I must confess I was daunted by the task. However, with some time and research I found myself convinced that solutions to the prevention of climate change do already exist in the boardrooms and political corridors of power. We need to see business and public policy as vehicles for change, as opposed to an impediment.
My argument was based on three opportunities: scaling “true” accounting, championing and fostering a culture of business leadership, and evolving public policy aims to beyond that of their primary focus on GDP. Further, given that we have roughly 30 years before we blow the carbon budget to prevent dangerous climate change (the agreed 2oC limit), time is of the essence.
“True” accounting
Natural capital accounting has proved divisive. A number of people, including the political philosopher Michael Sandel, have a moral issue with the pricing of ecosystem services. Our civic life and the life-support system of nature are no place for markets, it is argued.
The problem with this view is that our globalised market system continually undervalues nature and has so far proved resistant to the imposition of moral judgment. As the saying goes, you can’t manage what you don’t measure and through the identification businesses impact across systems “true” accounting can effect positive change.
Puma, for instance, was the first multinational company to make a commitment to Environmental Profit and Loss accounting. By quantifying its environmental impacts as a monetary value, it has been able to make targeted decisions in its most impactful operations. Strategic changes have been made on the basis that Puma identified that 85% of its environmental impacts occur in two levels of its supply chain.
Business leadership
The virtue of leadership within business can be difficult to justify in the context of perennial corporate scandals. However, there are genuine instances of companies breaking the mould through visionary goals and long-term commitments. Tim Cook, CEO of Apple, famously responded to a shareholder at an AGM that the company does ‘a lot of things for reasons besides profit motive.’ This anecdote is reinforced by Apple’s commitments to sourcing renewable energy and the elimination of harmful substances from its products. The next step for Apple should be to address the throwaway culture in which it participates, by incorporating circular economy principles into its business model.
Leadership does not always stem from the individual, and companies are increasingly finding strength in numbers through collaborations, coalitions and alliances. These include the Climate Group’s RE100 campaign, which has brought together the likes of IKEA, Philips, H&M and Nestle to commit to the sourcing of 100% renewable power. BICEP (Business for Innovative Climate & Energy Policy) is an advocacy coalition of businesses, convened by Ceres, committed to working with policymakers to pass meaningful energy and climate legislation that will enable a rapid transition to a low-carbon economy – ‘lobbying for good’, in the words of a recent publication.
Evolving public policy aims
Nowhere is the constructive power of business and politics more evident than in the growing calls for new measures of economic progress. ‘An Economy That Works’, a coalition of influential voices in business and beyond, has identified 6 key characteristics and 4 key enablers to a sustainable economy. Not only does it identify the problem of the dangerous, narrow focus on GDP, it also is set to provide the solution – albeit not just yet. The aim is to put forward policy proposals this year to build and accelerate transition to a new economy and the broad based support to achieve it.
Political leadership is also apparent in the form of the European Commission’s ‘Beyond GDP’ initiative, which aims to develop indicators that are similar to GDP but more inclusive of environmental and social aspects. One of the metrics being championed by the initiative is the Sustainable Society Index, developed by the Sustainable Society Foundation, which integrates both human and environmental wellbeing. The index states that economic wellbeing is not a goal in itself, but a “precondition to achieve human and environmental wellbeing”.
I concluded the debate by arguing that while the current model of growth is imperfect, the capacity (in terms of financial, innovation and leadership) to prevent dangerous climate change is in the hands of existing businesses and politicians.
As UN Secretary General Ban-Ki Moon has said, “together, we can leverage our strengths, multiply our means, and shift the global climate trajectory”. It would appear that change is indeed possible.
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