World Climate Summit wrap-up: business shows its caring, sharing side

At the inaugural World Climate Summit (WCS) the business world showed it can cut carbon emissions and share technology.

During the event, which took place from the 4th to 5th of December in Cancun, Mexico, over 800 business and government leaders from five continents gathered at the Ritz-Carlton to learn, share, strategise, and launch new initiatives to address climate change and build the global clean economy.

One of the event's highlights was entrepreneur Ted Turner's appearance with Sir Richard Branson during the first day, in which they discussed why climate change was the major issue of our time.

Sir Richard spoke about his work with the Carbon War Room (CWR), which announced the first universal energy index for the shipping industry at ShippingEfficiency.org. The program will use a public ranking system to motivate the industry to reduce its carbon intensity.

CWR also announced the Gigaton Awards, for six companies which were outstanding in reducing carbon emissions. The winners were Reckitt Benckiser, Nike, 3M, Vodafone, GDF Sues, and Suzlon.

Vice President of Sustainable Business and Innovation at Nike, Hannah Jones, is now working with competitors to share intellectual property on improvements in packaging and other sustainability related advances, while not compromising Nike's ability to compete on the product front.

Last year, Nike partnered with Best Buy to launch the Green Xchange to facilitate the sharing of green product research, designs and patents. Such intellectual property sharing has the potential to accelerate sustainability advances across the retail industry.

Though there were few deals announced at the WCS, one major announcement was that the Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC) will provide US$300 million to new private equity investment funds. These funds will be available for investment in renewable resources projects in emerging markets, making it one of the largest initiatives by the US Government to support the international effort to mitigate climate change.

Avoided Deforestation Partners announced a fully approved Voluntary Carbon Standard methodology that will enable immediate flow of capital to projects that reduce deforestation rates. Alongside this Philips launched their 'Liveable Cities' with local governments to provide energy efficiency and lighting in cities around the world.

Overall, the 16th Conference of Parties (COP16) side event was seen as a refreshing break from the COP16 talks. Throughout the weekend companies shared best practices and innovations, many of which have potential to transform entire industries.

The WCS also launched its 2011 programme, a set of high-level roundtables and summits in Brussels, Xian/Beijing, New York/Washington and Durban in preparation for COP17 in South Africa.

Author: Leroy Robinson | Climate Action

Image: Daly3d | Flickr