|
|
Moving forward to the goal of "clean and green" |
 |
+ |
- |
16:27, May 26, 2009 |
The World Business Summit on Climate Change was unveiled on May 24th in Copenhagen, the capital of Denmark. Ban Ki-moon, Secretary-General of the United Nations appealed to hundreds of industrial and commercial giants at the opening ceremony: the world's large enterprises have to bear the responsibility to deal with climate change, and the world economy should be moved forward to the goal of "clean and green".
Clean energy could bring millions of job opportunities
The issue of global climate change is indeed imminent. Representatives from the Climate Change committee of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel expressed at this conference, "Human activities have led to global warming, melting ice, rising sea levels as well as hurricanes in the Earth's Polar Regions. If we can not reverse this trend in ten years, the earth will face an unimaginable future."
According to the report "green jobs and clean energy economy" issued by the Copenhagen Climate Council on the second day of the conference, exploitation and the use of low-carbon clean energy can create business opportunities, bringing with it millions of employment opportunities. The report said that if international communities adopt appropriate energy policies to encourage large-scale strategic investment in clean energy, it would not only be conducive to improving the environment, but could bring a large number of job opportunities, creating new economic growth.
Crisis and Responsibility
A Swedish representative told reporters that policy makers in most enterprises are now facing the problem of profit decline and layoffs. He asked, under such circumstances, will taking responsibility for dealing with climate change hamper the development of enterprises? That representative said that in fact, those enterprises were very clear about the question of climate change and also understood that the development of green economy means new opportunities. However, after the advent of the financial crisis, many enterprises lack capital and time to pursue the goal of transforming to clean energy oriented businesses.
Coterie of local media in Denmark told reporters that this summit was well worth a look at: Whether to develop economically or to implement the green emission reduction agreement, after all, it was those enterprises who shall be the policy executors. However, the advent of the financial crisis changed the situation. The most obvious change was: in past meetings on the issue of climate change, the majority of themes were corporate social responsibility and morality. But now the theme has changed into a decision of priority, dealing with the financial crisis and climate change or taking the social responsibility?
Climate change influences future economy
In response to enterprises' concerns, Ban Ki-moon expressed in his opening speech, "Although climate change is a challenge to mankind, it could also become the ‘reformer of the game rules' for the future economy. Therefore, business leaders should be aware that climate change is not a drag, but a new development chance." Al Gore, former U.S. vice president also criticized enterprises which evaded responsibility for climate change. Mr. Gore believed that the green economy such as energy conservation, new energy and emission reduction technology are becoming the new global economic growth points. Enterprises which can take the lead in this area will also be the enterprises which can win the development opportunities.
In order to dispel the enterprises' worries, relevant research institutions released analytical reports at this meeting, pointing out that the cost needed for dealing with climate change only accounts for 1% of global GDP, or even less. But if we do not take any measures to slow global warming, the global economy would drop more than 5% in future. Connie Higher, minister for the Danish Climate and Energy Ministry also corroborated this point of view in her speech. She said, "the Danish economy increased 70% in the past 25 years, but energy consumption has not increased accordingly. Therefore, there is no need for enterprises to worry about costs increasing and profits declining when dealing with climate change."
By People's Daily Online
http://paper.people.com.cn/rmrb/html/2009-05/26/content_261177.htm
|
|
|
Comment
Tell A Friend
Print Format
Save Article