Pre-COP21 meeting: Statement by John Danilovich on behalf of business and industry NGOs (BINGO)

Thank you, Minister Fabius / Minister Pulgar.

Excellencies, Ladies and gentlemen.

I am John Daniolivich the Secretary General of the International Chamber of Commerce and I thank you for the opportunity to speak this morning on behalf of business and industry.

Business looks ahead to COP21 with optimism and determination and is strongly committed to its successful outcome.

The Governments of France and Peru have helped to stimulate that optimism and determination through their efforts have mobilized and inspired the global business community.

As business, our ultimate objective is to connect the UNFCCC process to the real economy, so as to ensure inclusive climate friendly growth and shared prosperity.

This evolution is already underway and with the right policy frameworks in place we can go further and faster.

Our vision for COP21 can be summed up in three simple terms…

• Innovation
• Collaboration
• Smart Regulation

Businesses are already innovating to develop the technological, organizational and financial solutions needed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and to adapt to changing climate patterns.

But to scale up these solutions we need enhanced collaboration between business—and, more importantly, between the public and private sectors…

All of which needs to be underpinned by smart regulation, including, where appropriate, self-regulatory frameworks, to provide business with long-term certainty and to turn existing market failures into market opportunities.

More specifically for the COP21 agreement and beyond, we see two main priorities:

The first is to catalyze innovation and investment.

Governments should do all they can to create an environment in which all sectors are incentivized and encouraged to innovate…

This should include allowing market-based GHG instruments as an option for meeting mitigation commitments.

And maintaining effective incentives to innovate and disseminate cleaner technologies across all sectors and energy sources.

In particular, I would like to stress the key role that intellectual property rights play in driving innovation.

To meet the climate challenge, it’s vital that robust and balanced IP frameworks are maintained both in those international institutions that are responsible for IP protection, such as WIPO and WTO as well as at national level.

I also would like to highlight that investment and innovation to meet the climate challenge will depend not only on the agreement itself but as much on what happens outside a COP21 agreement.

To take just one example: ongoing WTO negotiations to remove tariffs on environmental goods and services could speed the deployment of climate solutions.

We encourage governments to conclude those negotiations at the earliest possible opportunity.

The second priority for the private sector is to ensure that business is anchored in the UNFCCC process going forward.

Business continues to look to COP21 as a once in a decade chance to pursue institutional innovation and in so doing, to expand partnership, dialogue and consultation with business into a sustainable and enduring relationship.

This is not only about business involvement up until 2020—the so called “work stream two”.

We believe that business should be a recognized part of “work stream one”: the long term agreement.

Not least because the success of business involvement in work stream two relies on a clear and recognized role in work stream one.

The current minimal reference to business in the preamble text of the draft Paris agreement should be expanded to recognize what business expertise, experience
and innovation can bring to elaboration of the Paris outcomes as well as to their implementation.

In closing…

I would like to thank again the Peruvian and French Presidencies for their outreach to business and civil society over the past year and for the opportunity today to exchange views with you on these important topics.

We appreciate your willingness to engage with all stakeholders in the UNFCCC process and we encourage you to continue this dedication to transparency through COP21.

Business look forward to continuing to collaborate with you and all governments in this process.