Businesses leaders met in Denmark on Sunday to try to unite behind a call for long-term climate policies on oil, power and technology ahead of a UN conference in December that aims to replace the Kyoto Protocol. Many companies want new rules to help plan investment and capitalise on green technology. Some shareholders also want more climate-friendly business, but companies reliant on fossil fuels may lose out from measures to boost low-carbon alternatives. “We see climate change as a strategic issue of great significance for the business community,” Bjorn Stigson, President of the World Business Council for Sustainable Development, said of the three-day talks. Not all businesses believed that fighting climate change would mean higher costs, organisers said. “You hear people saying ‘oh, we can't agree, it will be bad for our business'. Well, here is a business voice that doesn't think so,” said Tim Flannery, an Australian scientist and chairman of the Copenhagen Climate Council, among organisers of the talks to be addressed by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. The UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen in December aims to agree a treaty to fight global for after 2012 when the terms of the Kyoto Protocol expire. The three-day World Business Summit on Climate Change brings together top executives from oil companies, power generators and engineering companies as well as political leaders. “We have agreement on the essentials,” Stigson told Reuters, referring to business demands for more clarity, for example, on carbon trading. Environmental groups such as Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth said last week that oil and coal lobbies had weakened a draft US climate bill, which moved closer to a full Congress vote after approval by a key panel on Thursday. At the same time many green groups applauded what could be the toughest US bill that was politically possible.
