from: Moira O’Brien-Malone
Media and Communications
WBCSD, Geneva, Switzerland
 obm at wbcsd.org

Geneva, Switzerland (26 November 2009): The World Business Council for Sustainable Development and the International Chamber of Commerce, in partnership with the Confederation of Danish Industry, are jointly organizing a Global Business Day to give governments clear business insights and help them understand what business will need to operate in a post-Copenhagen world.

The Business Day will take place in Copenhagen on Friday, 11 December, during the 15th Conference of the Parties (COP15) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, and is supported by the Danish Government and the UNFCCC secretariat.

Under the theme of Copenhagen Business Day — Leading ACTION, CEOs, government negotiators, NGO representatives and civil society officials will exchange views on what will be needed to bring about the transformation that will put the world on a path to low-carbon economies, with strong economic growth, and yet recognize that countries at different stages of development may have different needs.

For more information, please see www.copenhagenbusinessday.org
Special media breakfast

We would like to invite you to join us for breakfast immediately before the Business Day, from 8.00am. This breakfast will provide you with the opportunity to speak directly with business representatives participating in the Business Day. For catering purposes, please let Søren Falck ( srfk at di.dk) know if you would like to attend.
Media registration

Media are invited to attend the Business Day, but registration is mandatory. Due to exceptional demand, participants’ registration has closed, but media registration remains open until noon on Thursday, 10 December. To register, please email Mireille Debiol on  debiol at wbcsd.org.

For security reasons, media personnel attending the Business Day will need to show their COP registration badges to gain admission. Please bring them with you.

Please note that a separate CEO session, run in parallel to the three main working streams of the day, will operate under Chatham House rules and will be closed to media.
Venue

The Copenhagen Business Day will take place in the Confederation of Danish Industry headquarters, at HC Andersens Boulevard 18, Copenhagen, from 9am. The registration desk will be open from 8am.

Quotes

“Business is already investing a lot of money and effort into climate solutions,” said Björn Stigson, president, World Business Council for Sustainable Development. “It is ready to do more. But uncertainty in global policies will have an impact on the speed and scale of business actions. This uncertainty needs to be cleared up. At the very least, Copenhagen must outline how and when this will be done.”

“Concluding an ambitious agreement will require extraordinary leadership and political will,” said Jean Rozwadowski, secretary-general, ICC. “ICC believes that now is the time to respond to the scientific community’s urgent calls and complete work on a post-2012 agreement that will help the world collectively embark on ambitious greenhouse gas emissions reductions and take a quantum leap forward in technological innovation and cleaner investment. These efforts are critical to global sustainable development.”
“We want to address climate change while at the same time maintain economic growth and social development. The current economic crisis reminds us all that facilitating strong and competitive business is the first step towards a market-based low-carbon economy. Therefore it is also vital that the business community is heard loud and clear in the COP15. The business voice is the voice of solutions, says Hans Skov Christensen, director-general and CEO, Confederation of Danish Industry.

For further information contact
Adam Newton,  media at wbcsd.org, +41 79 377 7958

Catherine Foster,  catherine.foster at iccwbo.org, or +33 1 49 53 28 22

Søren Falck,  srfk at di.dk, or +45 3027 7292

SIDE EVENTS AT COP 15

WBCSD

Saturday, 12 December, Bella Center, EU Pavilion, 15.30-17.30

This side event will introduce an EU study to identify how the international climate change policy process can effectively leverage private sector expertise and engagement. In a partnership between the WBCSD, Ecofys and Climate Focus, the project overview will be presented and there will be an opportunity for discussion and feedback.

Monday, 14 December, Bella Center, room tbc, 18.15-19.45

The Pew Center on Global Climate Change and WBCSD are organizing a panel of government and business leaders at the upcoming to explore priorities and challenges beyond Copenhagen. The panel will include a senior business leader, representatives from the US Congress, and ministerial representatives from both the EU and developing countries.

ICC

Monday, 14 December, Bella Center, room tbc, 13.00-14.00

Technology Development and Deployment to Address Climate Change

Business is the primary source of innovation and a critical actor in the development, demonstration, commercialization and dissemination of technology. This event, organized by the International Chamber of Commerce, will explore what business needs to successfully develop and deploy technology at the necessary scale to combat climate change. It will also explore public-private sector partnerships both within and outside the UNFCCC framework.

DI

Tuesday, 15 December, Bella Center, room tbc, 14:30-16:00

Ensuring Technologies for a Greener World

Private investment is a key driver in development of low-carbon technologies. Speakers will address the proper framework for business, including IP rights, local know-how and capacity building is crucial in order to maintain incentives for innovation and ensure continuous investments in low-carbon technologies.

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Further – from Pete Stingson:

Leading up to the political discussions in Copenhagen, I would like to raise your attention to role of industry in these processes as well as in mitigating climate change. While abatement and mitigation goals are set by policymakers, they are met by other social actors who decide in actions that affect their emission levels. In this context, the industry role is significant as representing one-third of the global carbon dioxide emissions.

For this reason, governments must acknowledge how the viability of investments in abatement measures are perceived to be affected by policies and other aspects. Industrial experiences about policies as well as technology development and deployment are vital information in designing effective and efficient policies. This is emphasized under current conditions where both policymakers and business lack robust knowledge about the function of many novel climate related policy and technology developments. In this context, large asymmetries exist in how actors perceive barriers and opportunities for RDD&D investments in CCS.

One way of strengthening policymaker-industry learning is to utilize negotiated agreements, where an arena for dialogue is established between these parties. However, the learning values of negotiated agreements are predominately disregarded, meaning that the full values of such policy instruments are not appreciated.

These and other research findings are presented in the thesis “The industry role in climate policymaking: Policy learning in climate politics”.

The thesis and references to appended papers can be downloaded at:
 http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:…

(Should you  experience any problems with the link, he writes, please copy and paste the link in your web browser.)

Best regards and safe travels to COP-15,
Peter Stigson
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Peter Stigson, PhD
School of Sustainable Development of Society and Technology,
Mälardalen University (Sweden)