COP 20 – Solutions for Green Sustainability and Innovation – Businesses and Cities

COP 20 Lima, Mr Peter Bakker, President of World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) speaks on the Integration of Green Sustainability into every aspect of cities and business worldwide and the key component for up-scaling of environmental solutions is Innovation.

Business has finance and management skills, innovative power and also business solutions that can help address the sustainability challenges that are out there and in terms of scaling up on solutions, there are a lot of showcase examples, but none have cracked the code in terms of this.  A business case is needed in terms of  our way of thinking about ‘valuation’, which requires revision and changing, for example : a robust price on Carbon, i.e. well over 50 dollars/ton is needed, if the spreadsheets will actually make a difference and Collaboration – it’s no longer true that governments and businesses on their own, in a climate agreement, will face this problem but by working together as we presently are at this COP conference, we will reach solutions that the world urgently needs.
Business and Government have very different approaches to planning and implementation overall, with business following the Plan-Do-Check-Act principles, however in terms of Climate Change we need to set targets, whether global, city or company targets, etc. and once these targets have been set, then we can start to implement solutions and measure whether these solutions are actually delivering on what was planned, needed or promised.

In terms of Green innovation and new Economic growth within the context of making all future cities “green”, this is an essential focus and need today, as 80% of all materials utilized and 75% of the world’s emitted CO2  in the world are used in cities, supported by (WRI) Andrew Steer’s  earlier presentation that indicated : ‘in the next few decades we will build cities for another three (3) billion people, and if we don’t make cities sustainable, then the world cannot be sustainable – It’s a Crucial Element!
Business Solutions that businesses have in the cities are threefold, i.e. City solutions – holistic, Energy efficient buildings and Low carbon mobility and it’s not just a case of city design but a combination of mobility and building plans and holistic city design that will make our cities sustainable.
WBCSD has learnt major lessons in our dealings with a multitude of companies around the world, which translates to that fact that if you address cities, you have to bring together the city governments and leading businesses that have the solutions to implement.  In this partnership alone is the power of solutions.

It is crucial that China is joining the discussions, because if China adopts the ‘American Dream’, the world will not be sustainable, due to the fact that many of the 3 billion people who will move into the cities, will be moving into chinese cities – China must now take the leading role in building sustainable cities.

Links:
http://www.wbcsd.org/Overview/About-us/Our-team/SMT/Peter-Bakker
http://www.wri.org/our-work/topics/climate  (World Resources Institute)