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Let us not hide from the fact: negotiations in the runup to COP 15 have been a complete fiasco. The Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation (Apec) forum, which includes the US, China, Japan and Russia, deleted the commitment from the final version of the official communiqué issued after a two-day meeting in Singapore in mid-November. The commitment had been made by G8 leaders at L’Aquila in Italy in July and the decision to remove was seen as a retrograde step. Few world leaders seem to have the resolve to take firm action on climate change. President Obama has already confirmed that there would be no legally binding deal at the UN summit in Copenhagen. He won’t be there at the summit at the same time as Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao either. Then late last week, in fact just five days before talks started in Copenhagen, China, India, Brazil and South Africa rejected core targets proposed by the Conference’s Danish hosts in a draft text for a climate deal. Among the spurned goals: halving world greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 and limiting global warming to a maximum 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial times. Instead, these four major players have drawn clear red lines limiting what they themselves would accept and reasserted demands that richer nations do more. Even as this posturing continues on the world stage, China announced last week that it planned to curb 2020 emissions per unit of gross domestic product by 40-45 percent from 2005 levels. It had already set a target of generating 15 percent of its power through renewable sources, including solar power by 2020. Renewables are now expected to account for 10 percent of China's energy by 2010, according to officials. That means it will have to add 1.8 megawatts of solar generation per year from 2011 to 2020. Possible? Certainly, if we look at the fundamentals of OgilvyEarth’s belief system – that sustainability is good business practice. The country's two wealthiest businesspeople, one an electric-car maker, the other a paper-recycling giant, reflect the rapid emergence of green industries in China's fast-recovering economy. Wang Chuanfu, owner of battery and electric-car maker BYD, leapt 102 places to top the Hurun Rich List after his fortune increased more than five-fold over a year ago, to $5.1 billion. Second on the list is Zhang Yin, who founded the paper-recycling company Nine Dragons Paper. She ranked No. 1 in 2006 and No. 2 in 2007, but had fallen to 15th last year amid the economic downturn. There are 17 Chinese businesspeople in The Sunday Times’ Green Rich List 2009 – almost all engaged in the mass production of green technologies, predominantly solar power, but also other renewables. While the leaders negotiate, these folks are going right ahead building their businesses. What about regular people? How will they be affected, and what is their willingness to embrace a low-carbon lifestyle? In a study done by China Daily last week, 72.3% of the respondents said that they would be willing to put up with some inconveniences to live a low-carbon lifestyle in order to curb global warming. One of those inconveniences could well be paying carbon tax. The state press cites a recent study by Renmin University which suggests that China will need to invest up to 30 billion dollars a year to meet its goal of curbing greenhouse gas emissions. Which means, Chinese households may end up paying 440 yuan (64 dollars) a year more in fees and taxes to help the nation fulfill its goal of slowing growth in emissions. For a nation which has prospered hugely in the last two decades, and is looking for continued growth, it might be a small price to pay for the future of our planet.
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