The greater good

Melting of the Arctic sea ice, the destruction of the Amazon rainforest, frequent, extreme weather disasters all these suggest that the world has already reached the climate change tipping point.

Scientists warn that global warming is likely to result in increasing climatic disasters if emissions of greenhouse gases (GHGs) continue.

Commitments by developed countries to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases (GHGs) under Kyoto Protocol brings hope on reversing, or at least slowing down the warming. Current climate talks for a post-Kyoto agreement may involve even more countries.

But government efforts alone cannot fix the problem. The complicated issue calls for assistance from multiple stakeholders, including scientists, political leaders, media, and private citizens. And the power of the business sector should never be under-estimated.

This is the reason that UN Global Compact set up the "Caring for Climate: A Business Leadership Platform."

Formally begun in July 2007, the program is a voluntary global initiative that seeks to mobilize the business sector to develop solutions that reduce climate risk while also generating economic profits.

"Caring for Climate helps companies to advance practical solutions, share experiences, inform public policy as well as shape public attitudes," says Georg Kell, executive director of UN Global Compact.

Up to now, 206 companies from 48 countries have endorsed the "Caring for Climate" statement. One hundred fifty three of these are large companies, and more than 40 percent are headquartered in developing or emerging economies. Signatories represent 30 different industry sectors.

The first batch of Chinese companies, including China Mobile, Haier Group, Li & Fung Limited, Broad Air Conditioning and China International Marine Containers joined "Caring for Climate" during the Business for Environment Global Summit (B4E summit) held in Singapore last month.

Liu Meng, director of UN Global Compact China Office, tells China Business Weekly that these companies' participation suggests that China's business sector is catching up with their international competitors on climate issues.

China Mobile, the world's largest telecommunications operator by subscribers, is leading the environmental campaign among China's enterprises.

A huge amount of energy is consumed every year to support the company's 305,000 base stations and other facilities, according to Li Yue, vice president of China Mobile.

"The company's energy consumptions reached 7.89 billion kwh in 2007, the annual growth rate of energy consumption has almost surpassed that of operating revenue," Li said in a speech at the B4E summit.

The company has set a goal to increase energy efficiency by 40 percent by 2010 on 2005 levels and cut the use of 8 billion kwh of electricity, and reduce the emission of over 6.8 million tons of carbon dioxide.

Practices to realize the goal cover a range of issues, which includes applying advanced energy-saving technologies to both major and auxiliary equipment, improving air conditioning at base stations and key data centers, providing on-demand power supplies to data centers, promoting eco-friendly packaging and transportation and recycling electronic wastes, according to Li.

China Mobile also works closely with other stakeholders and industrial partners to achieve the green goal. It has signed strategic memorandums with 50 global telecom vendors and IT suppliers, such as Nokia, IBM, Ericsson and Dell, on the company's eco-action plan.

Internally, China Mobile has asked employees to help take care of the environment of their communities and surroundings, says Li.

"This is a marvelous example of how a company sets bold targets and then engages actively to achieve them," says Kell, from UN Global Compact.

But facilitating participants to make commitments and realize them is not all the program is about. It's also about information sharing.

By joining Caring for Climate, companies can gain access to the experiences and best practices of their peers.

However, the debate was hot during the B4E summit on whether the participants of "Caring for Climate" should make these technologies public, as sometimes they can generate economic returns and many are intellectual properties which should be protected.

Such clashes of ideas have revealed one of the fundamental dilemmas facing the climate change challenge: the interests of a single organization versus a greater good. Maybe it's the time for the organizations to make a little sacrifice.

(China Daily 05/19/2008 page5)