SHAPING THE LOW CARBON ECONOMY

As politicians continue to wrangle, companies are surging ahead with investments and innovations that are shaping a clean, low carbon economy. 'Responsible Business and the low carbon economy' is a television series that tells the story of how leading companies are undergoing a clean, green revolution.

Teresa Fogelberg, deputy CEO of the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) recently highlighted the fact that 'four months after the United Nations Climate Change conference in Copenhagen, bitter disappointment has settled in among many around the world... governments have spent months and years getting almost nowhere on climate negotiations... but it is companies that are the elephant in the room. They have become a silent force toward progress, and a significant one, too... they send an important message to government-level negotiators, to the business community and to the world at large.'

The Responsible Business television series shows how this 'silent force toward progress' is gaining momentum across all industries. Episodes will profile companies in transport, information technology, construction and renewable energy technologies, while also exploring the role of business in advocating an international climate change agreement to succeed the Kyoto Protocol.

Leo Apotheker, former CEO of SAP has emphasized that business leaders cannot wait for global regulations to be agreed upon and put into practice. "We must act today as carbon management and sustainable business will only become more critical over time. Many large companies are already taking matters into their own hands. The hope of course is that politicians will take note and respond with a global regulatory framework, but business leaders know they cannot wait for this framework before acting."

A recent report on the state of green business notes that what began as a seemingly altruistic endeavor, then shifted to a way to cut costs and improve reputation, has become a fundamental business competency, alongside accounting, finance, human resources, marketing, customer service, procurement, knowledge management and others. Indeed, in some firms, green thinking is becoming embedded in each of these other disciplines, increasingly woven into the corporate fabric.

The result is that for some companies, environmental improvements and innovations become a means of surviving lean times, and being more competitive once things rebound.

As Goldman Sachs has observed, in the rapidly evolving low carbon economy, we are approaching a "tipping point" at which a company’s response to climate change will be a defining factor in its business performance.

Meanwhile negotiations in the lead up to COP16 in Mexico continue. In April the BASIC countries (Brazil, South Africa, India and China) met in Cape Town, South Africa, where they emphasized their support for a binding international agreement on climate change to be finalized during the December 2010 UNFCCC conference in Mexico. They did add, however, that countries may have to wait until the 2011 conference in South Africa for an agreement to be reached. The 1997 Kyoto Protocol, with provisions capping industrial countries' greenhouse gas emissions, expires in 2012.

'Responsible Business and the low carbon economy' will be broadcast from September to December 2010 on CNBC US (and Canada), CNBC Europe (and the Middle East), and CNBC Asia Pacific.