Business Leaders are Key to Solving the Climate Crisis
(
Copenhagen, 12 December 2009
) – Hosted by the Global Compact and the Copenhagen Climate
Council, over 300 representatives from business, civil society and international organizations met
at the historic Kronborg Castle today to discuss the business role in achieving a fair, balanced
and ambitious global climate treaty. Meeting on the occasion of the critical UN Climate Change
Conference (COP15), business leaders from around the world renewed urgent calls for political
leaders to deliver a global climate framework that would give business certainty and stability to
kick-start the transition to a low-carbon global economy, which, to a great extent, depends on
private sector investment and innovation.
In a video message delivered to delegates attending the meeting, former US President Bill
Clinton said: “No matter what agreement is made in Copenhagen, the business leaders brought
together by the Copenhagen Climate Council and the UN Global Compact are key to whether we can
actually solve this crisis. There can be no effective response to the climate problem without
business innovation, investment, and low-carbon technology and processes.”
Introduced by Copenhagen Climate Council chairman Tim Flannery as “an environmental hero of
the highest order” keynote speaker Gro Harlem Brundtland, former Prime Minister of Norway and
Special Envoy on Climate Change for the United Nations, said: “I expect them [political leaders] to
agree on much more here than extending a deadline – we are not just looking for any deal, we are
looking for a good deal.”
Several business leaders attending the event weighed in on the debate over a climate
agreement: Tracy R. Wolstencroft, Managing Director at Goldman Sachs, said “the path to a solution”
and the way to achieve such confidence and stability within business is through government
incentives, including a price on carbon.
Microsoft Vice President Klaus Holse Andersen, further called for clarity on a global scale
involving developed and developing countries in an equitable way.
And Duke Energy Chairman and CEO James E. Rogers said: “Any framework that comes out of COP15
that includes all countries is good enough for me.”
Media Contact
Matthias Stausberg
+1 917 367 3423
stausberg@un.org
