Dear friends, colleagues, and fearless change-makers,

People now recognize that those who say “these technologies are fantastic, they are just not ready” are actually a voice against progress. We have the technology, the workforce, the passion, and the knowledge. What we are lacking is confidence from our leaders, confidence from our finance ministers, and confidence from our financial institutions that this is actually the right course of action. It is only by convincing everyone that 50% of global climate emissions can be profitably offset with today’s technologies that we will win.

It is time for us to diversify our approach to this problem. Do we need a global price on carbon? Of course. While we wait for politicians, we have the tools to create a functioning marketplace so that we can get started on cost effective technologies at scale. This world needs more “doers” not talkers.

Hilary McMahon – Research Director, Carbon War Room

As delegates fly home from the Durban 2011 Climate Conference, almost 36 hours after the scheduled close, relieved that they reached an agreement, the Carbon War Room takes the opportunity to reflect on the outcomes.

The agreement reached – titled the ‘Durban Platform for Enhanced Action’- was essentially an agreement to keep talking about ways to reduce green house gases that are responsible for climate change. The final outcome was probably the ‘medium’ scenario, or as Tosi Mpanu-Mpanu, head of the Africa group suggested “we met mid-way”, in what could have been a disastrous set of negotiations. The worst-case scenario would have seen the majority of countries walking away from any agreement, which would have perhaps spelled the end for any hope of an inclusive multilateral process. The best-case scenario would have been an agreement on a multilateral approach to solve climate change that included commitments to legally binding mitigation target for all countries (including China, India and the US) and enhanced the level of ambition of those commitments.

Top down to bottom up

So where does the medium-outcome leave us? The developments in Durban suggest that we are firmly moving from a top down process (e.g. the 1997 Kyoto Protocol like treaties) to a bottom up approach, which allows countries to set their own targets, or commitments, and report on these at the international level in a consistent and transparent way. As European Commissioner Connie Hedegaard stated, “the big thing is that now all big economies, all parties have to commit in the future in a legal way and that’s what we came here for”.

Even though countries will be setting these commitments unilaterally, the parties agreed that we still need a place to ‘house’ these commitments and a platform to report against them. This is key, as it will allow a certain amount of transparency around how countries are progressing in meeting their mitigation commitment and what activities they are undertaking to achieve them. The implications for the private sector are that there will now be a level of transparency around what commitments countries have set, and therefore, how companies will be required to contribute and report on their emissions.

Small steps

South Africa’s International Relations Minister, Maite Nkoana-Mashabane, brought down the long-awaited final gavel at the end of the conference stating “we have made history”. The question therefore is, what history has been made? There is little that will be written about in the history books here, but there were small steps in the right direction in terms of substance. For example, the 200 countries present agreed, in the wee hours of the morning, to the following:

• A continuation of the Kyoto Protocol, the only existing protocol tying country to negotiated green house gas emission reductions and the continuation of the markets for carbon credits associated with the Kyoto Protocol. This is important for the private sector that is engaged in the buying and selling of these credits.
• An agreement to continue negotiations on some other substantive issues including a financial mechanism and the fleshing out a Green Climate Fund. This is relevant for the private sector, as it is likely that any public funds committed in the future will be used to leverage private funds to support mitigation and adaptation in developing countries.
• An agreement on the rules to help avoid deforestation and the measurement of emissions in this sector, which is highly relevant for companies operating in this sector.
• The establishment of a process to create a technology mechanism to support the deployment of low carbon technologies, a mechanism that the private sector could both contribute to and benefit from.

All of these mechanisms in themselves are a very small step in the right direction and often more symbolic than game-changing, however, they do demonstrate the opportunity for developed countries to support developing countries to mitigate green house gases with mature climate change solution technologies.

Where to now?

The next steps will be to iron out the details of the roadmap for a regime to include all countries, the operationalization of the various mechanisms that were discussed and to decide on the look and feel of the next commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol. All this will need to be considered before the next climate conference in Qatar in 2012, which is actually also the country with the highest green house gas emissions per capita in the world. Perhaps the Climate Conference will act as an inspiration for its host and its participants alike to embrace a low carbon future. Something on which Durban demonstrated, we can all agree.

Hilary McMahon is the Research Director at Carbon War Room. She can be reached at hmcmahon@carbonwarroom.com

As seen on Fast Company

by Ariel Schwartz

A funny thing happened over the past few years: Major companies that had no intention of cutting down carbon emissions did so anyway. But it wasn’t because they tried; it was because the recession forced them to cut back all over, and that translated into reduced emissions.

So last year, when the Carbon War Room launched its inaugural Gigaton Awards–an awards ceremony that highlights “outstanding performances as defined by measurable carbon reductions and quantifiable steps towards sustainability”–a lot of companies ended up nominated that really didn’t intend to be worthy of an environmental prize. Not so with this year’s nominees, announced this week. Every company on the list has tried and succeeded in slashing emissions.

This year’s nominees, which are broken up into five categories (utilities, telecommunications, industrials, consumer staples, and consumer discretionary) are a varied bunch, but they probably won’t surprise anyone who has paid close attention to the corporate social responsibility space. They include PepsiCo, Tesco, Swisscom, Philips, Johnson Controls, Siemens, and PG&E.

The Gigaton Awards methodology is a combination of data from the Carbon Disclosure Project’s Global 500 Report (an examination of CO2 reduction strategies at the world’s largest companies), annual emissions intensity analysis for each industry, and ethical criteria.

“The nominees are different from last year, partially because the methodology has improved from last year. We really took into account intention,” says Jigar Shah, Carbon War Room CEO and Co.Exist expert blogger. “This year, you had to call the pocket that you were shooting the eight ball into.”

PepsiCo, for example, has worked extensively with TerraCycle on waste reduction, which in turn cuts down on CO2. Deutsche Post has worked extensively on converting to alternative sources of fuel.

“We’re tired of giving awards to people who have said, ‘We’ve come out with this brand-new approach, please give us an award for trying,’” explains Shah. “What have you actually accomplished?”

The Gigaton Award winners will be announced in December.

Washington DC (November 1, 2011) – The Carbon War Room, The Gigaton Throwdown, and the World Climate Summit today announced Tesco, Siemens, PepsiCo, Danone and Philips among the nominees for 2011 Gigaton Awards

(www.gigaton-awards.com )

The Gigaton Awards are designed to inspire and challenge businesses to run their business in the most carbon efficient way possible. It recognizes best-in-class in each of five major sectors, best-of-best, and other special awards announced nearer the time.

“It is so wonderful to see so many companies who are truly making a difference by reducing their carbon emissions, and even more exciting to see some of these leaders inspiring whole industries to change.” said Sir Richard Branson, Co-Founder of the Carbon War Room.  “I’m as excited as the rest of my fellow Academy of judges to be picking the very best from the shortlist over the next month”

The full list of nominees includes:

• Consumer Discretionary: Johnson Controls (US), Fiat (Italy), Philips (Netherlands)
• Consumer Staples: Danone (France),  PepsiCo, Inc. (US), Tesco (UK)
• Industrials: Deutsche Post (Germany), Schneider Electric (France), Siemens  (Germany)
• Telecommunications: Swisscom (Switzerland), Royal KPN (Netherlands) Telefonica (Spain)
• Utilities : Fortum Oyj (Finland),  PG&E (US), Centrica (UK)

The winners will ultimately be picked by an independent Academy of judges, comprised of business and civic leaders, and as with parallel awards in other industries the winners will be selected based on a mixture of quantitative and qualitative measures.

Company nominations are based on an assessment of performance on a range of metrics, including disclosure, volume and intensity emissions reduction over the last year.  Data for the world’s five hundred largest companies is taken from the Carbon Disclosure Project’s Global 500 report.  Companies then went through a filtering process by Greeenstar who conducted the assessment for the nominations.

“We are delighted that the CDP data set has been used by the Carbon War Room on the Gigaton Awards and to see the awards help demonstrate to the wider business community the changes that are possible as a result of more sustainable business practices,” said Paul Simpson, CEO of Carbon Disclosure Project.

The Awards evening will take place at the World Climate Summit, the exclusive conference for business, financiers, philanthropists and governments to accelerate solutions to climate change in. Durban on December 3^rd, during the United Nations annual summit on climate.

Last year’s winners included:

• NIKE for its energy savings program aimed at reducing its global greenhouse gas emissions,
• Reckitt Benckiser Group for demonstrating its leadership in mitigating risk from climate change and sustainable practices,
• Suzlon for its achievement in managing its emissions and overall sustainability milestones,
• 3M  for its leadership in improving energy efficiency and sustainable practices,
• Vodafone Group for its new business which provides carbon reducing connections, and
• GDF Suez for its demonstrated leadership by emitting among the lowest CO2 per KWh produced in Europe

For more information about The Gigaton Awards, visit www.gigaton-awards.com.

About the Carbon War Room

The Carbon War Room harnesses the power of entrepreneurs to unlock gigaton-scale, market-driven solutions to climate change. Over 50% of the climate change challenge can be addressed today — and profitably —under existing policy and technology conditions. We seek to facilitate a better flow of capital to entrepreneurial solutions that make economic sense right now.

For more information, visit www.carbonwarroom.com.

About the Gigaton Throwdown Initiative

The Gigaton Throwdown Initiative inspires companies, entrepreneurs, policy makers, and investors to think big about solutions to the climate crisis.  Founded by Sunil Paul in 2007, it sponsors research and awards to educate and inspire the private sector to achieve climate stability.  For more information visit: www.gigatonthrowdown.org

About World Climate Summit

The World Climate Summit is a new, open and collaborative framework for business, finance and government leaders to accelerate solutions to climate change until 2020. It is a global platform facilitating large-scale collaboration between businesses, financiers, philanthropists and governments on regional, national and global solutions to climate change.

http://www.wclimate.com/world-climate-summit/wcs-2011/

In the Americas, contact: Carbon War Room at press@carbonwarroom.com

For the rest of the world, contact: Peter Browning, Blue Communications
peter@blue-comms.com
+44 7760 787 028

Over 50% of carbon can be profitably reduced using technology that exists today and under the current policy framework. Here is a great video explaining our energy challenges and the entrepreneurs who are working to fix the problem – featuring Carbon War Room founder Richard Branson http://video.pbs.org/video/1873639434

As posted on Fast Company - by Jigar Shah

We are living in an uncertain time. The global economy’s recovery from the recession of 2008 seems fragile. Financial markets all over the world are in turmoil. Bank stocks are being hammered in Europe and the United States. Private sector employers are slow to hire due to growing speculation of a double-dip recession.

In the midst of these uncertainties, one thing is clear: The key to sustained economic recovery and long-term job growth lies in rebuilding our infrastructure. We need a global “impact economy” in which governments, corporations, entrepreneurs, and investors team up to solve the big environmental and social problems of our time while generating compelling financial returns–not just average returns. As Nobel Prize winning economist Joseph Stiglitz says, “The real answer, at least for countries such as the United States that can borrow at low rates, is simple: Use the money to make high-return investments.”

The big problems of our time–as they always have been and always will be–can be traced back to aging, obsolete, or non-existent infrastructure. From the Roman Aqueduct of 312 BC to the railway between Beijing and Hong Kong completed in 1997, successful infrastructure projects have always helped make nations great.

But actually commencing these groundbreaking projects is becoming increasingly difficult and complex in the modern world. With shrinking government budgets, lowest cost is trumping common sense planning. As a result, we are more susceptible to volatile fossil fuel prices, changing commodity prices, and even climate change. Furthermore, the multi-national and cross-border nature of most transport, water, waste, and communications infrastructure projects infuse them with political challenges and of red tape. In short, governments that are low on cash and high on debt are having a hard time building infrastructure.

On the plus side, large-scale infrastructure projects have a long history of being funded with both public and private money. But for infrastructure-focused public-private partnerships to succeed, governments must have a clear vision of what they are striving to achieve and a plan for engaging the right partners in the right ways.

For the private sector–corporations, entrepreneurs, and investors–this means reasonable assurance that government policies underpinning the plan will not be held hostage by politics or fall victim to election cycle partisan posturing; that risk will be properly shared between private and public entities; and that innovation and investing will be rewarded with compelling financial returns.

Unfortunately, too many countries–the United States chief among them–lack leaders with a clearly articulated vision and the ability to communicate national policies and plans well enough to gain widespread support. And now we are running out of time. More than ever, we need infrastructure visions and plans that support new sources of energy, solve the world’s growing water and food scarcity issues, and create new markets and industries.

The amazing thing is that we already have private sector businesses with solutions that are scaling rapidly. The scary thing is that governments do not know who they are and have no good way to coordinate with them.

In the realm of public-private partnerships for impact economy infrastructure development, Europe is leading the way. The United Kingdom, for example, published a National Infrastructure Plan last year that lays out goals and priorities for infrastructure investing of 200 billion GBP over five years–funds that will be raised through “smarter use of public funding, improving private sector investment models, encouraging new sources of private capital and addressing the regulatory failures that stand in the way of greater private sector investment in our country’s infrastructure.”

As the U.K. plan shows, high-impact environmental, social, and economic returns will come when the public and private sectors work together on large-scale infrastructure projects. Now the U.K. has to find fearless change-makers to implement this plan.

It’s time to go the distance. Let’s build a global impact economy, one million new jobs at a time. Who’s with me?

Jigar Shah is CEO of the Carbon War Room, a nonprofit that harnesses the power of entrepreneurs to implement market-driven solutions to climate change and create a post-carbon economy.

“We need to find a new way to create wealth and save the planet. Business has to step up to take responsibility for these solutions”

-Richard Branson

Watch the full video of Richard’s keynote at Creating Climate Wealth Sydney here: Richard Branson addresses Creating Climate Wealth Sydney Summit

IMO agrees to implement efficiency ratings for global shipping, the first ever regulation of the industry’s greenhouse gas emissions. Peter Boyd, COO Carbon War Room: “Today’s new standards if applied to all ships, not just newbuilds, would save the industry more than 220m tons of CO2 and $50bn a year. This is a historic move by the IMO but there’s a bigger environmental and economic opportunity out there that’s too good to miss.”

Friday, 15 July, London – Carbon War Room, the NGO aiming to unlock global gigaton scale greenhouse gas emissions reduction through entrepreneurial means, welcomed today’s announcement by the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) to mandate energy efficiency ratings for the international shipping fleet, which emits around 3% of global emissions, more than that of Germany.

The IMO resolution signals a key shift in the regulatory landscape of shipping, which has hitherto not required, even at the national level, any improvement in the sector’s footprint, currently growing at between 3% and 4% a year.

Peter Boyd, COO of Carbon War Room, said: “The IMO has an outstanding record in developing international agreements on safety and has drawn on this to make the first steps towards reducing the industry’s carbon footprint. We applaud the work of the Secretariat here in finding agreement in the international climate change debate.”

The Carbon War Room has consistently argued that widely available energy efficiency ratings offer a proven means of instituting best practice design in energy-intensive applications. In December 2010, the organization launched shippingefficiency.org <http://shippingefficiency.org> , which made energy efficiency ratings for the 60,000-strong ocean-going fleet freely available for the first time, using the IMO-developed methodology.

Peter Boyd added: “There is a $70bn subsidy for environmental improvement in shipping, called fuel savings from more efficient vessels. The IMO decision on new-builds should result in fuel savings of $5bn annually by 2020 (and CO2 reductions of over 20m tons). The real prize for the planet and profitability is in the existing fleet. Today’s new standards if applied to all ships, not just newbuilds, would save the industry more than 220m tons of CO2 and $50bn a year.  Chasing all profitable efficiency savings could save even more. This is a historic move by the IMO but there’s a bigger environmental and economic opportunity out there that’s too good to miss.”

Following today’s announcement, Carbon War Room will deliver a letter to IMO delegates calling for the mandatory use of energy efficiency ratings across the entire fleet, signed by 50 organizations, including owner-operators of 60 million tons-worth of vessels. Signatories include Denmark’s Maersk Line (containers) and TORM, Canada’s Teekay, America’s Heidmar (tankers) and Wallenius Wilhelmsen Logistics (ro-ro) of Norway/Sweden. German consumer electronics company Schneider Electric has also signed, along with the Port of Los Angeles and the NGO Forum for the Future.

GLOBAL ONLINE PLATFORM OPENS WITH SEVEN INVESTOR-FOCUSED CLEANTECH WORKING GROUPS

Washington, DC (May 3, 2011) – Richard Branson’s Carbon War Room, a non-profit organization that harnesses the power of entrepreneurs to implement market-driven solutions to climate change, today announced its 2011 series of Creating Climate Wealth (CCW) Summits in US (Washington DC, May 3-4), Australasia (Sydney, July 7-8) and UK / Europe (London, September 7-8) with its local partners – The Long Run Venture (UK) and Future Journeys (Australia).

“We are thrilled that for the first time we have surrounded entrepreneurs and other change makers with passionate advocates for market based solutions.  Together with our new partners and the online platform we can actively identify the barriers to large scale investments, target and eliminate them to speed and scale solutions to climate change.” says Jigar Shah, CEO Carbon War Room.

The Summits will identify specific pathways to accelerate deployment of clean tech solutions in the face of low expectations and weak mandates. Through these invitation-only events, Carbon War Room will convene executives, investors, entrepreneurs, and leaders from the private and public sector for two days of workshops on removing barriers to capital flow to clean technology. Each Summit will offer between five and seven working tracks, determined by Carbon War Room and local partners and co-chaired by leading experts in the field and War Room operations leads.

Janine Cahill, CEO Future Journeys and co-presenter of Creating Climate Wealth | Australia commented regarding the southern hemisphere event: “This really is the 21st Century opportunity: Collaborating to co-create low-carbon economies across the globe. Future Journeys is very excited to bring Creating Climate Wealth to Australia and enlist corporations and entrepreneurs across the continent into the War Room”. The Sydney venue was picked in part due to the eagerness of local entrepreneurs to solve market barriers without waiting for policy change.

The London story is similar:  “We will build on the Carbon War Room’s creatively disruptive approach, overcome barriers which are particularly acute in the UK and Europe. With the active involvement of leading entrepreneurs and businesses, we hope to develop major new wealth creation opportunities.” says Scott Cain, Founding Partner of The Long Run Venture and co-presenters of Creating Climate Wealth | UK/Europe

This year, the summits will be complemented by the launch of Carbon War Room’s premium online hub that enables investors, entrepreneurs and executives to engage directly with the War Room and each other throughout the year. Commencing with CCW | North America 2011, the hub offers seven working tracks to facilitate discussion and circulation of key documents before, during and after working tracks at the Summits, and allow members to share thoughts; receive meeting information, news updates, announcements from co-chairs and fellow group members; and track the progress of the group. The initial working tracks are:

• Distributed Generation,
• Energy Efficiency,
• Aviation & Renewable Fuels,
• Shipping and Freight,
• Future of Personal Transportation,
• Sustainable Agriculture
• Island Economies

To register for the Summits, please go to www.creatingclimatewealth.com

To join our LinkedIn online platform, click here.

About the Carbon War Room

Carbon War Room focuses on achieving billion ton (gigaton-scale) reductions in carbon dioxide emissions (CO2) by harnessing entrepreneurship to unlock the largest wealth-creating opportunity of our generation. It brings private capital together with emerging technology providers and local and central governments to drive environmental improvements alongside economic growth.

http://www.carbonwarroom.com

About The Long Run Venture

The Long Run Venture’s core purpose is “sustainability faster”, by equipping businesses to drive faster commercial returns from sustainability.

http://www.thelongrunventure.com/

About Future Journeys

Future Journeys is dedicated to assisting people and organizations to co-create sustainable futures through strategic foresight and innovation processes.

http://www.futurejourneys.com/

Carbon War Room Contact:
press@carbonwarroom.com