 Panel Discussion When environment intersects with economic and national security: Reaching the tipping point SATURDAY 13 OCTOBER 2007
The problem in China today is that the central government is too weak, Eliot Cutler, ‘energy czar’ for former U.S. President Jimmy Carter, told a session on climate change. He was explaining his point that the leadership needed to tackle climate change around the world was more likely to come from the private sector and non-government organisations (NGOs) than from governments. Multinational corporations, he said, often acted faster than political leaders, who suffered from the syndrome known as ‘NIMTO’, short for Not In My Term Of Office. Multinationals and NGOs, he said, were also less likely than governments to take a ‘tribal’ approach and instead to base decisions on broader criteria. He cited the example of Wal-Mart, which he said was exercising more leverage than almost any corporation in the world. It had, for example, asked its 81,000 suppliers to provide information about their carbon emissions. In China, he continued, the company was operating in the freest, most competitive market place in the world, which at the same time lacked effective government regulation. The Beijing government had good intentions about environmental action, he said, “but Wal-Mart is moving more quickly.” The solution, he suggested, was for the company to insist that suppliers comply with conditions that the government would impose if it had the power to do so. Cutler said the growing influence of the private sector and civil society was only one of the reasons for his optimism about the world’s ability to tackle the Doomsday scenario of climate change. Other positive factors were widespread support for international cooperation, the existence of technological know-how and the availability of enormous amounts of capital. His analysis of the weakness of China’s central government and the power of regional governments was supported by Chinese environmentalist Sheri Xiaoyi Liao, who warned that millions of Chinese wanted an American-type lifestyle, complete with a big car. “How many Earths do we need to support such a lifestyle?” she wondered. She warned against putting all emphasis on material goods. “What is the purpose of development if we lose our health and happiness?” she asked. Happiness was not growing commensurately with the rise in the growth of gross national product in industrialised countries, she observed, and argued for more attention to be paid to spiritual issues. She told participants about her successful energy-saving campaign for air-conditioning units to be set at no cooler 20 degrees centigrade in the summer. The campaign followed her visit to the U.S. where, she said: “I felt so cold in summer and so hot in winter, and asked myself, ‘Why do we need this kind of civilisation?” She also suggested the title, ‘Women’s For the Economy & Society’, should be changed to include the word ‘environment.’ Sophia Tickell agreed climate change leadership was coming from business rather than government, but warned: “There ‘s still a huge, long way to go”. She described sitting next to the chief executive of one of the world’s largest pharmaceutical companies at a Washington dinner and asking him whether his company was taking action on climate change. “No. Do you think I should ?” was his reply. She also emphasised that businesses needed a clear regulatory framework to ensure that there was no advantage for companies that did not cut emissions. She said the issue facing the world was whether the flooding, the melting glaciers that would jeopardise freshwater supplies for 40 per cent of the world’s population and other effects of climate change would be exceeded by the world’s collective ability to respond. But she was heartened by people’s growing awareness of the implications of global warming, and by the increasing understanding of governments that climate change threatened stability and thus national security. Moderator Fiona Harvey said she would take a number of recommendations from the session to the plenary:
A member of the audience suggested that the next Women’s Forum should help participants measure their carbon footprint. __________________________ |