[Ict4devwg] WWF: Climate entrepreneurs key to low carbon future

[Vern Weitzel]

http://www.panda.org/wwf_news/news/?uNewsID=160842

Climate entrepreneurs key to low carbon future

Related links

     * WWF discussion paper about Technology Action Programmes under the UNFCCC
	http://assets.panda.org/downloads/wwf_technology_web.pdf
     * Swedish report "12 Climate Entrepreneurs"
	http://www.wwf.se/climatesolver/pdfs/12_Climate_Entrepreneurs.pdf
     * India report "Indian companies with solutions that the world needs"
	http://assets.wwfindia.org/downloads/indian_companies.pdf

30 Mar 2009
Bonn, Germany: WWF urges delegates at the ongoing UN climate talks in Bonn to 
find ways to support a new class of climate entrepreneurs as the main drivers 
for a future low carbon economy.

New research by the global conservation organization shows that innovative 
technologies available today can result in emission cuts of hundreds of millions 
of tons through rapid growth.

The two new WWF reports – including 17 case studies from developed economies 
such as Sweden and emerging markets such as India - show what works and what 
doesn’t in bringing the power of innovation to bear on the need to rapidly face 
the challenge of climate change.

“There is immense potential for both climate and business success in technology 
innovations coming forward – what we need to do is to remove obstacles to 
successful commercialization and wide diffusion that innovative entrepreneurs 
and companies are faced with,” said Stefan Henningsson, Director of the Climate 
Change Programme at WWF Sweden.

New ways of bringing natural light into large buildings developed 8 years ago by 
a Swedish construction consultant in collaboration with an innovator could save 
an estimated 220 million tons of CO2 equivalent in emissions per year, as well 
as delivering huge savings in electricity bills.

In another example, systems for large-scale production and distribution of 
district cooling, developed by one Swedish innovator, are more efficient than 
traditional cooling technology. A 25% expansion in the share of district cooling 
on the European cooling market alone would cut CO2 emissions by up to 50 million 
tons each year.

In India, a company setting out to provide LED-based solar powered lighting to 
the rural poor is tackling sustainable and climate friendly development on two 
fronts. This and other examples show how sustainable business and social 
entrepreneurship can shape future economic growth.

“The Indian companies featured in the WWF report reflect the incredible 
potential that lie in the alignment of sustainable development needs and 
business value in developing countries – and the global solutions they can 
provide,” said Henningsson.

The Swedish case studies also identified the major obstacle to the development 
and deployment of promising new technologies at scale: continued high levels of 
direct and indirect support for incremental improvement of existing outmoded 
production methods in larger companies.

“In planning policy and public investment there is a tendency to consult mainly 
with the big players in business and industry who generally favour traditional 
solutions,” said Henningsson. “But often traditional solutions and improving old 
methods simply are not good enough to ensure the market transformations and 
emission reductions we need.

“Even systems which don’t discriminate against new ideas are insufficient. Let’s 
embrace systems that actively seek them out.”

While a co-ordinated focus at high government levels on facing the climate 
change challenge would be a welcome first step to improve the environment for 
innovations, WWF is also proposing the creation of “one stop shops” for climate 
entrepreneurs, where outstanding ideas could be linked to public and private 
resources for research, financing, commercialization and export.

At the international level, WWF is calling for Technology Action Programmes to 
be established under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), to 
speed up the development and demonstration of new technologies and the better 
diffusion of existing sustainable technologies.

“Majority of the ideas are already out there and some of these come from 
developing countries and others from industrialised countries. “What we lack are 
sufficiently efficient ways of moving from ideas to working solutions past the 
gaps and rigidities in our systems.”
-- 
Vern Weitzel (Mr.) BSc, BA, MA, M Env Man & Dev <vern at coombs.anu.edu.au>
<vern.weitzel at gmail.com> <vernweitzel at mac.com>

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