Climate Action 2010-2011

Finance and Markets
There is projected to be a third more people on the planet by 2050, mostly
located in urban areas.
© iStockphoto
The ‘green
race’ is on
Matthew Bateson
Director of Energy & Climate for the World Business Council
for Sustainable Development (WBCSD)
Disappointment over the lack of an international
deal for reducing global emissions at Copenhagen
has perhaps obscured a trend with tremendous growth
potential: companies and countries have entered a
‘green race’ to become world leaders in developing
clean energy and climate-friendly industries.
This has begun not a moment too soon. Explosive
population growth expected in the next 40 years will
lead to a world that is increasingly carbon and resource
constrained. The developing world is expanding,
creating an enormous demand for resources to build
infrastructure. The wise use of resources today is critical:
tomorrow it will be too late. The best and quickest way
to decarbonise our economies will be for governments to
put in place measures to unleash private investment.
There have been ambitious national-level efforts to
attract clean energy investment. The list of countries
is lengthening and the rankings are changing fast.
According to an Ernst & Young index that assesses
country attractiveness for renewable energy investment,
the US has lost its top slot to China – a position it
has held since 2006 – while Japan, New Zealand and
Australia have all moved up a few places.
Companies and countries are also starting to value
their water, one of the single most important engines of
economic growth and stability.
The race to decarbonise
The current global economic downturn has mostly hit
developed countries yet the world is expected to see
tremendous growth over the next 40 years to 2050,
mostly in developing countries. There is projected to be
at least a third more people on the planet by then, most
of them located in urban centres in emerging markets.
Therefore the focus will be on improving the quality of
life – to deliver clean energy, clean water, paved roads and
more and better schools.
This enormous expansion – and consequent faster
economic growth – will push up demand for resources
which, if poorly managed, will lead to greater pollution.
In short, the massive wave of infrastructure necessary
to improve the livelihoods of literally billions of new
citizens, mostly in developing countries, will lead to a
world that is resource constrained. Running parallel,
meanwhile, there will be the challenge to decarbonise the
energy systems and economies of developed countries.
Business is the main partner
for governments in building
a low carbon future.
In developing countries,
private sector investment in
clean energy in 2009 was treble
that of public finance.
The twin challenges in the developed and developing
worlds will put tremendous pressure on increasingly
limited resources.
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