The UN Conference on Climate Change has passed its first week.  The next week will be about outcomes and declarations.  What is apparent is that solutions, as we all know, won't be easy.  We are seeing greater consenus on the science, an extra two degrees centrigrade in global warming is the allowable limit.  We are also seeing developing countries asserting their right to pollute, because developed countries have polluted.  It now looks like a 25%-40% reduction in carbon emissions or equivalents by 2020 is a target that delegates want or might be prepared to live with.

If that is the target, then the task is massive and immediate and to achieve goals, the conference and governments need to start providing alot more clarity for business.  Clarity not just in targets, measuring and trading systems, but clarity in tax incentives, legal and patent process and dates when, like the switch from analogue to digital in broadcasting, organisations and companies must uniformily comply.  The general fear is that this might just be too much for a committee of national governments and the UN framework is proving too slow.  We need to keep things moving and we need to find other avenues for leadership.

Business is increasingly concerned about climate change and the environment.  Compliance is increasingly being seen as a social responsibility and potntially a saving, not a business cost.  Gordon Brown said that climate change would need its own Marshall Plan, Bali is proving that that will be correct.  If targets mentioned are enforced, the transformation required to adjust to lower emissions economies is huge and technology, cleantech, needs to play a massive role.  This might provide the opportunity for some business leadership.  Could big business in return for concessions in areas like tax, patenting and technology certification, agree to spend a dedicated amount of money on clean technology.  Business would get assistance, governments would collaborate and get the immediate benefits of deployment of new technology and certain parts of the world, that technology might be free.  That could in any trade off be our commitment to the developing world that they too must reduce and cap emissions, that their is no concept of catch up.

Could that be one of the outcomes of Bali?

In the meantime all Governments need to rethink the pricing of energy, hitting pockets does make everyone more careful.