Business strongly advocates post-2012 climate agreement

“Negotiators must keep in mind that the major challenges of today transcend national borders and boundaries ─ effectively addressing them requires concerted international cooperation,’’ said Guy Sebban, ICC Secretary General. ‘’ A global post-2012 UNFCCC framework agreement that achieves consensus and includes all major greenhouse gas emitters to address climate change effectively and efficiently is the best course of action.”

As the main voice for official business and industry input during the two-week meeting, ICC will urge negotiators representing more than 190 countries to reach agreement on a framework for a global solution to climate change.

The meeting comes at an important and challenging juncture in the global economy.  But despite the current global financial crisis, world business remains committed to finding solutions to climate change.

Recent events have highlighted the need to work cooperatively to develop the policies and commercial conditions needed to shape a more climate-friendly economy and society and meet the energy and development needs of all. ICC will stress that now more than ever, measures are needed that work with markets, and open rules-based trade and investment to ensure technological and financial resources are widely deployed.

“Business is actively seeking new solutions,’’ Mr Sebban said. “We urge negotiators to develop policies and financial mechanisms to de-link environmental impacts from economic growth and to improve energy access and energy security.”

During the UN climate change meeting ICC will also demonstrate the important link between trade and investment and climate change; the private sector’s commitment to finding solutions to climate change; and the need for increased international cooperation.

“Trade and investment and climate change are inextricably linked,” Mr Sebban said. “We urge negotiators to remember this in Poznan. We also ask them to consider the frameworks necessary for the massive investments that will be needed for the development, deployment and diffusion of technology, especially in the developing world.’’

ICC will also underline the essential need for strong intellectual property rights protection to underpin technology development, and market-based licensing of those rights.

ICC has long been the main focal point for business views in the UNFCCC negotiations and has a major business delegation participating in Poznan.

The private sector has made and will continue to make the vast majority of investments in the technologies needed to combat climate change. ICC will underscore the vital importance of clean technology in the context of rising energy demand and strong population and economic growth. In the next 25 years, the world’s population is expected to include another 1.5 billion people, economic output is expected to double, and energy demand will rise by 50%.

Business will furnish clear business insights and ideas in Poznan to help governments progress towards a workable climate policy framework.

On 9 December, for example, ICC is co-hosting the Poznan Business Day with the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD), in close cooperation with UNFCCC. Yvo de Boer, Executive Secretary of UNFCCC, is among the high-level participants. The Poznan Business Day is also expected to be well attended by negotiators. Journalists are invited to attend the panel discussions as well as the two media conferences on 8 and 10 December. The event will take place in Pavilion 4 of Poznan International Fair.

ICC will also host three side events during the Poznan conference. On 4 December a panel will assemble several business sectors that have put together novel programmes to discuss sectoral approaches they have implemented to measure, report and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. An event on 8 December will explain the decision-making process business undertakes to disseminate and invest in low-carbon technologies. Finally, on 10 December, business experts from developed and developing countries will provide national and regional perspectives on a post-2012 global agreement on climate change.

ICC will also submit papers and statements to government officials and negotiators in Poznan detailing the policy, legal, and institutional frameworks needed to solve the climate challenge.

The ICC Commission on Environment and Energy develops business positions on these issues and represents business in key intergovernmental negotiations where these issues are discussed.