Interview: Sir David King, UK’ Special Representative for Climate Change
28 November, 2014
Does business play an important role in combating climate change?
- I think there are three partners to the business of combating climate change; business, the political community and civil community. All three partners have a critical part to play.
Where do you see the most positive action being taken to address climate change?
- I think what is the most positive action is that the business community becoming fully engaged with policy makers, so that as we roll out our policies towards zero carbon dioxide emissions, we are taking the business community with us and the politicians are working closely with them. If we can deliver that, that means that we have a society in which we can still grow our economy, grow our wellbeing of the citizens and manage climate change.
What are your hopes and expectations for the COP20 meeting in Lima next month?
- What we are expecting from Lima is that we will emerge, first of all for heads of agreement, so that between Lima and Paris, we have a full year of bilateral and multilaterals negotiations to develop a good agreement in Paris. That is the first thing. The second thing is, we need to fully establish the green climate fund. We have just had the Berlin meeting and we have ten billion dollars now to finance the fund but we need more than that. We also need to persuade and take along with us all of the developing countries, and the least developed countries in particular, with a sufficient funding up ahead of them to gain their trust in reaching an agreement. I think those are the two key objectives out of Lima. If we can get close to those things moving and get adaptation on the agenda, I think that we can move with some confidence towards Paris.
Are there any experiences from the British industry from working with the climate issue that you would like to share with the Swedish industry?
- Sharing experiences between the Swedish industry and the British industry is the most important thing that we could do. What we have seen is that the sharing of information between companies has produced the biggest transformation. In other words, companies sharing their best experiences to each other is the most important factor. I would not pick out any one thing more than intercompany communication. That means we have to create save spaces where these challenges can be met.
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