Today's post is mostly going to be encouraging - once I engage in a bit of spleen-venting over history.

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After some deeply depressing initial posts yesterday and the day before, I'll focus today on what business is pushing for, and some encouraging news about Canadian involvement and developments in the transport sector.

Perspective from business

The big bad capitalists are saying all the right things. Can you believe it? Well, even though much of the world might think business is just bad, have a look at what 50 of the world's top business leaders are saying through a statement delivered at COP24. Because of how "leadership-y" it is, I'll repeat the message of their open letter (minus the impressive list of signatories) verbatim here. Bear with me - the package is inspiring and worth reading through.

Climate change is a major threat to our environment, societies and economy, endangering our well-being and prosperity. But a prosperous, inclusive and low-carbon world is possible.

As heads of global businesses, we have an urgent but simple message for world leaders, heads of government and the international community ahead of the UNFCCC COP24 in Katowice:

We are committed to climate action. We stand ready to fast-track solutions to help you deliver on an enhanced and more ambitious action plan to tackle climate change and meet the goals set out at the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement.

We know this is possible.

In 2015, our coalition the Alliance of CEO Climate Leaders – an informal group, facilitated by the World Economic Forum, of major global businesses from a range of sectors – called on governments to reach an ambitious climate deal, aligned with the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

When the Paris Agreement was reached, we confirmed our commitment to work together with the public sector and civil society to help deliver on its goals.

Since then, we have collectively reduced our own emissions by 9% and are committed to reducing these further. We have introduced innovations and solutions, as shown in our recent Two Degrees of Transformation report.

But global greenhouse gas emissions remain at historic highs. The aim of limiting global warming to well below two degrees is clearly not on track. We need to do more, faster, and together.

To do this, we are:

a) continuing to reduce emissions using strategies that make the most sense for our businesses

These include initiatives such as setting a (science-based) target, putting an internal price on carbon, reducing energy use, switching to renewable forms of power, and working with partners to lower emissions across value chains. All of these efforts support the goals of the Paris Agreement.

b) supportive of the thoughts behind the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures, convened by the Financial Stability Board

We will advocate for improved analysis and reporting of climate-related financial risks.

c) calling on other businesses to jointly step-up climate action

d) investing in low-carbon initiatives and companies, and in innovations to reduce greenhouse gas emissions

We urge and support world leaders to:

a) implement effective carbon pricing mechanisms that drive a meaningful price on carbon across the globe

b) stimulate low-carbon finance and investments by offering coherent policies that shift financial flows from high-carbon investments to the low-carbon economy, thereby encouraging innovation, as well as adaptation investments

c) develop policy tools that help educate and positively influence societal demand for low-carbon solutions

These actions and incentives, facilitated by governments and backed by continued innovation in science and technology, will enable business to create jobs and economic value during the shift to a sustainable and socially responsible, low-carbon economy. This in turn will enable governments to set more ambitious climate targets.

The shift to low-carbon economies will be positive for communities and workers, future-proofing our businesses and economies while protecting the planet for future generations.

By working together, we can accelerate this transition and realize the future that humanity wants and needs.

The UN Secretary General’s Climate Summit in 2019 represents a clear milestone. We, the undersigned members of the Alliance of CEO Climate Leaders, are ready to help government leaders and policy-makers to develop and implement an enhanced, comprehensive, inclusive and ambitious action plan for 2020 and beyond.

So Greta Thunberg was calling for better leadership? This is a specific call to action from business, for business and for the public sector.

Canadian leadership in addressing climate change?

Let me get a leeeeeeetle bit of history out of the way first.

Do you remember the story about the difference between the chicken and the pig when it comes to a plate of bacon and eggs? The chicken's involved, but the pig is committed, so the saying goes. Well, I became a climate change "pig" in the early 2000s, transforming from just a "chicken" citizen-of-the-world observer of the need to do something about climate change to a "pig" once I'd taken a course in the Clean Development Mechanism and brought back my learnings to my company, naively expecting them to see the benefit as good corporate citizens of incorporating thinking about managing climate change into their strategy.

Wrong, wrong, wrong. I was the wrong gender, the wrong nationality and overall, just wrong...so I spent years afterwards explaining that the global economy was simply going to change because of climate change and if they didn't position themselves, they would become irrelevant. Certain groups of people do not like hearing from Canadian women engineers transplanted to South Africa that there's something systemic which they might not be able to control, so instead of listening to the message they assassinated the messenger. Over and over and over. Luckily, like a character from one of @wesleybeckza's games, I apparently have a lot of lives.

Why did I stick it out?

I stuck with it, because...duh. The world will never be the same, according to the best scientists in the world, and all that.

Canadian leadership was strong

And at the time, Canada was providing tremendous leadership in this space, in terms of science, support to the Clean Development Mechanism and Joint Implementation and what looked from afar like moral and ethical leadership at the initial Conferences of the Parties (COPs).

Until....

But then along came a change of Canadian government leadership, with Stephen Harper taking the helm, and Canada shifted from a leadership role to, well, what could only be termed a saboteur role, as characterised by their actions at the 2011 COP17 hosted by Durban, South Africa. If you think I'm exaggerating, have a look here and here. Canada's Environment Minister announced that Canada was pulling out of the Kyoto Protocol, basically in support of Western Canada's fossil fuel ambitions.

If you think the Trump administration is the first to play Nastyball at one of these events, I'm ashamed to say that Canada paved the way. Those who attended reported that the behaviour of Canadian delegates was antagonistic and interfering. If Archbishop Desmond Tutu felt he had to complain about the Canadians, I can only conclude that their behaviour was complaint-worthy.

Enough of history, Canada's redeemed itself, I think

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Fast forward to now, and Canada and the world are a different place. The current government has taken a diametrically different stance to that of the Harper government. Current Environment Minister Catherine McKenna has promised that Canada will implement tougher emissions cuts in 2020 when the Paris Agreement obligations kick in.

Unless it doesn't

Leadership is everything in this global challenge, and the wild cards including the present government not getting re-elected in favour of a less Paris-friendly government, or the current government finding itself tangled up in fossil fuel commitments that mitigate, as it were, against adopting the ambitious Paris Agreement targets.

News from the transport world

Okay, time for some unabashed good news.

Volkswagen de-shames itself

Do you remember how Volkswagen faked its emissions profiles? Well, they're looking to redeem themselves by dropping the production of combustion cars by 2026 while gradually phasing out current combustion engines to the minimum.

I smell some corporate leadership there, even if it's shame catchup.

e-mobility is highlighted

Finally, as we look at the prospects for transformation of the global economy, one of the focus areas is transport. The Government of Poland is taking a leading role here:

Among the initiatives promoted by Poland during the United Nation Climate Summit - COP24 in Katowice, the Driving Change Together - Katowice Partnership for Electromobility has a fundamental place. The Declaration, prepared jointly with the United Kingdom, was announced on behalf of the Polish government by Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki. It was already joined by 38 countries from 5 continents, as well as international organisations, representing over 1500 cities and regions, but also 1200 companies. In order to fully implement the Partnership, a dedicated e-mobility trust fund will be established in cooperation with the World Bank.

Let's see what this means in practice.

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References for today's post:

https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2018/11/alliance-ceos-open-letter-climate-change-action/
https://www.euractiv.com/section/climate-environment/news/cop24-diary-day-4/
https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2018/11/alliance-ceos-open-letter-climate-change-action/
https://www.cdp.net/en
http://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_Two_Degrees_of_Transformation.pdf
https://www.iea.org/newsroom/news/2018/march/global-energy-demand-grew-by-21-in-2017-and-carbon-emissions-rose-for-the-firs.html
https://cop24.gov.pl/news/news-details/news/prime-minister-announced-e-mobility-declaration/
https://unfccc.int/process-and-meetings/the-kyoto-protocol/mechanisms-under-the-kyoto-protocol/the-clean-development-mechanism
https://unfccc.int/process/the-kyoto-protocol/mechanisms/joint-implementation
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_Harper
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011_United_Nations_Climate_Change_Conference
https://www.pri.org/stories/2011-12-07/cop-17-canada-bad-guy-climate-change-talks
http://www.sagennext.com/2012/01/05/canada%E2%80%99s-cop-out-at-cop17/
https://www.canada.ca/en/services/environment/weather/climatechange/canada-international-action/un-climate-change-conference/cop24-katowice.html
https://windsorstar.com/news/world/mckenna-concerned-global-politics-may-keep-paris-agreement-rules-at-bay/wcm/70deb83a-527c-4f3d-86cf-6073ef8c7e06
https://www.handelsblatt.com/unternehmen/industrie/auto-von-morgen/handelsblatt-autogipfel-volkswagen-kuendigt-das-ende-des-verbrennungsmotors-an/23715746.html?ticket=ST-2811371-iH1IRdUXL2qAqI6KKUPM-ap1
https://cop24.gov.pl/news/news-details/news/prime-minister-announced-e-mobility-declaration/

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