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Climate Savers Wanted
An often heard remark is that Governments need to take action to stop climate change – by reducing Greenhouse Gas emissions nationally, and agreeing a new international treaty. This is very true – but to properly tackle climate change we need a co-ordinated effort across society, including business, civil society and individuals.
This was brought home at an event organised by my colleague Shobana Kesava in Singapore recently. Working with WWF Singapore, the discussion looked at “Carbon Reduction and Corporate Sustainability”. After outlining the new British Government’s approach to the issue (including the commitment to reduce Government emissions by 10% over the next year), the local context was set by screening the film High Stakes, which shows how climate change is likely to affect South East Asia.
A range of speakers outlined their take on the issue. A leading environmental economist from the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy took a look at current consumption patterns, and argued for large reductions in Greenhouse Gas emissions in developed countries.
The Executive Director of “Brand Green” built the case for making sustainability issues part of business as usual. He explained how many companies are now rigorously examining the supply chain, to ensure their suppliers are also engaging in climate friendly practices.
And a senior Executive from Fairmont Hotels spoke about the threat to his business from extreme weather patterns caused by climate change. Hotels and resorts are reliant on attractive and stable environments to attract weary travellers. Fairmont has therefore become a Climate Saver, under the WWF programme that encourages companies to invest in projects that protect rainforests, promote recycling, and use energy effectively.
This is just one example. But it demonstrates nicely that no one group can provide the answer to climate change – and that already, there is good joint working to try and find practical solutions. If you have time, take a look at what the Climate Savers programme is doing.
Living in a Energy-Climate Era
While listening to Singapore’s former cabinet minister Lim Chee Onn speak at a recent lecture, I was reminded of the Energy Climate Era that New York Times columnist and writer Thomas Friedman wrote about in his book ‘Hot Flat and Crowded’.
If you haven’t read the book, Mr Friedman argues that the convergence of climate change, globalisation (including the rise of the middle class in emerging countries) and rapid population growth is driving five trends that will define the 21st century.
These five trends – energy and resource supply and demand, petro-dictatorship, biodiversity loss, climate change, and energy poverty – have culminated to result in this energy climate era which demands that all businesses begin thinking about their operations in this new dimension.
This new era has led to some sectors presenting the best opportunities in the near future – a subject that Mr Lim, current chairman of Singbridge International Singapore, elaborated on during the lecture series organised by the St. Joseph’s Institute and Fullerton Hotel earlier this month.
Here were some interesting statistics from his lecture:
On water:
· By 2030, global demand for water will grow from 4,500 billion cubic metres (cu m) to 6,600 billion cu m – 40 per cent above the current supply.
· In some countries such as China, the situation is even more dismal. It has the world’s largest population, but less than one quarter of the world’s average per capita water capacity – 2,200 cu m per person compared to the United States’ 20,500 cu m per person.
· Severe drought in many areas of the globe such as in China and Africa also accentuate the problems which need serious solutions.
On food:
· By 2050, global food production needs to be doubled to meet the minimum demand from a 9.2 billion population. Climate change, shrinking arable land and competition for scarce resources like water will make this task even more daunting. This is compounded by poor logistics in the global food supply chain, land degradation due to over-farming
· As countries like India and China increase meat consumption, this will place a greater burden on water, energy and food resources such as grain (used to feed the animals that feed humans. The recent looming food crisis triggered by a hot, dry summer which has reduced food supplies such as wheat is a perfect example of how unexpected disruptions can adversely impact countries, especially those which are particularly vulnerable.)
On energy and commodities:
· Energy prices will only rise over the long term and apart from energy-related resources like coal, oil and gas ,the growth of global demand for natural occurring minerals has been phenomenal especially in the emerging economies. And in tandem, the pace of extraction, development of new mines, and search for new sources have grown considerably. China’s demand for copper, for example, tripled in the last 9 years and its demand accounts for almost half of the world’s current output.
· But similarly, there is also a global push towards sustainable forms of energy production. China’s target, for example, is for 15 per cent of energy consumed to be provided by sustainable supplies, including nuclear, by 2020. It has the following renewable energy targets by 2020: 27 GW biomass; 3 GW waste to energy; 100 GW wind; 20 GW solar.
Mr Lim, who is now over-seeing Singbridge’s drive to develop eco-cities across the globe, quoted research house Mckinsey’s projections that by 2020, Chinese cities will require 5 billion square meters of roads to be paved and 170 new train systems. Buildings providing 40 billion sq m of gross floor area will be required even as additional logistics will be required to support the quadrupling of land freight volume.
Similarly, by 2025, India will be the world’s largest consumer market where its urban population will increase from 318 million to 520 million – the current size of the European Union
His key message was that the global trends may present problems that seem daunting and challenging, but is also creating “opportunities galore… for the bold and adventurous”. These impending economic changes will require more than “just a larger number of scientist and technologists”. The world will need businesses, entrepreneurs, economists, logistics planners and operators, and a green-collared workforce to capitalize on those opportunities.
But beyond his message, this new era and its opportunities also requires businesses to re-evaluate what this means for their business models. Due to the increasing scarcity of energy resources, businesses and organisations must look into how to achieve the highest productivity with the least amount of energy consumed – or even better, how to develop their businesses in a way that contributes to solving the world’s problems.
Even businesses not directly involved in the highlighted industries above will experience higher business costs as food, commodity and energy prices rise. Where a business might locate a plant in China and India due to lower wage costs might change its decision after considering higher transportation costs due to energy price hikes and the impending price put on carbon pollution.
The challenge is to anticipate how rapidly these trends will emerge and how quickly energy prices will shift over the mid to longer- term. Not to mention that a growing concern on the sustainability of businesses will also determine the longevity of a company or demand for its products and services from consumers. As I contemplated the new environment that the world operates in today, it becomes clear that any business that does not think about its entire operations in the context of the energy climate era is one of yesterday, not the future.
This blog post first appeared on ESI’s Energy Vibes.
Vietnam - the hazards of a changing climate
I visited Vietnam recently.
When I arrived, colleagues in the Embassy told me how heavy rain the previous day had caused severe flooding: “the water was up to my waist”, “in the end I had to put on a pair of shorts and wade through the water”, and “a 20 minute journey took me 3 hours”. The next morning (15 July) I opened the Vietnam News, the main English language newspaper to see a sobering set of headlines: “Ho Chi Minh City promises to end most flooding”; “Heat, drought kill, damage 100,000 ha of rice”; and “Hai Phong to spend extra $110million on rain water drainage”. International headlines included “Twenty die as typhoon cuts across the Philippines”, “Rising Indian Ocean seas threaten millions”, “Japan rain leaves 1 dead, 3 missing”, and “Rescue bid intensifies along flooded Yangtze”.
All these climate-related headlines were from just one day. Increased disruption as a result of climate impacts is being felt across Asia, and nowhere more so than in Vietnam. Of course, you cannot say that one particular flood, or one particular storm, is the result of climate change - after all, the country has experienced such phenomena for a long time. But research shows that floods and tropical storms are becoming more frequent. Vietnam has a very long, low lying coastline which is particularly vulnerable to sea level rise. For example, a recent Asian Development Bank (ADB) study shows that tropical storms are traditionally rare in Ho Chi Minh City - but over the last 60 years, the city has seen 12 large tropical storms that have caused serious flooding, sometimes up to 1.2 m high. The issue is particularly important in areas like the Red River and Mekong Delta, crucial areas for rice production. A recent World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) report estimates that by the end of the century, rising sea levels could see half the Mekong Delta being lost, while a sea level rise of 1m would flood a quarter of Ho Chi Minh City.
Faced with these facts, you could expect Vietnam to concentrate solely on adapting to climate change. The Government is of course taking steps to improve the country’s infrastructure and alter cropping practices. But it is noticeable that it is also taking significant steps to move to a “low carbon” pathway. It has signed up to the Copenhagen Accord, the document produced at the Copenhagen climate talks in December 2009. It is trying to support the production of renewable energy and energy efficiency measures. And (with support from the UK and World Bank) it is about to begin a study to examine how the country can grow economically in a low carbon, sustainable manner.
This is a good example of how many countries in South East Asia, even though very vulnerable to the effects of climate change, still realise the need to move to a low carbon growth pathway as soon as possible.
If you would like to know more about climate change in Vietnam, look at the WWF report on climate change in the Greater Mekong, or the Asian Development Bank report on Ho Chi Minh City.
