A sad moment in a happy context

During the weekend got the following question over a dinner (The happy context was Mattias Klum turning 40 years) “name one thing that is bad about climate change”… Such a strange question to get 2008. My response was another question (as I think the reply is valid for climate change as well) “Can you name one bad thing about war”. (in the same

It got me thinking that even educated people with time to think might have a hard time to understand the magnitude of the challenge and the suffering climate change already is causing.

Maybe it is media that is creating this longing for “one” answer and make it hard for people to deal with complexity, especially if it is in the shape of a black swan (something that you have never seen before).

Maybe it was just a bad conversation starter, as an optimist I hope that it was the case and not that we are more ignorant that I dare to think.

PS
James at WEF reminded me yesterday about the situation in China and here is a link to a weather related article (this took place as they were preparing celebrations for the Chinese new year)

Desperation in the coal sector – The Future(gen) is dead, but industry refuse to re-think, or?

Futuregen, another clean coal power project is dead, but the coal people refuse to see the writing on the wall.

Technology exist to deliver fossil free solutions, but that require us to drop the current supply driven perspective and move to focus on the services we need. The heavy coal actors will probably never to manage this transition, but in some companies there is hope shining in through the cracks of the fossil façade.

For example, Vattenfall is working on a new business model (Portfolio Vision) that moves them away from the linear (block-on-a-block) approach that result in more coal and CCS solutions, towards a service perspective that look at what people really want (see snapshot). Not clear if this will transform one of the biggest polluter and slick climate communicators to a company that actually deliver sustainable solutions, but it is encouraging to see innovative thinking from a company that is in the forefront when it comes to locking EU into an unsustainable future.

Maybe they have read one of the many studies that show that sustainable system solutions (demand side and renewables integrated) is less expensive, e.g. one of the studies from Booz Allen Hamilton.

Money available to save the planet – Thank you Exxon Mobile for (potentially) saving the planet

With high oil and energy prices and there are obviously those making a lot of money. Beside those who I focus most on (oil income [GCC, Russian and Norwegian oil fund] and power companies that make a lot of money] it is obviously the big multinational oil companies…

Anyone talking about the lack of money for a transitional to a low carbon/resource efficient economy should take a look at the money available. February saw Exxon release their numbers for 2007 and with more than US$1000 profit every second from one (1) company during 2007 it is strange that people can say that we cannot afford to build the infrastructure that can save the planet …

From The New York Times:
“The company [Exxon Mobile] reported Friday that it beat its own record for the highest profits ever recorded by any company, with net income rising 3 percent to $40.6 billion, thanks to surging oil prices. The company’s sales, more than $404 billion, exceeded the gross domestic product of 120 countries.

Exxon Mobil earned more than $1,287 of profit for every second of 2007.”

NEW: Discussion Paper from CII – Building a Low Carbon Indian Economy

2008 will be spent more in India than before, and even if it is raining now and the plane was delayed I really look forward to the next few days here...

Confederation of Indian Industries (CII) is really an interesting organization and I’m glad that I have the opportunity to collaborate with them. I really look forward to the first results from the joint project “Sustainability as a driver for Innovation and Profit”.

One thing we will include in our work is the the new discussion paper from CII, "Building a low carbon economy" available for download here, just one example of how business in emerging economies often are more progressive than companies in the west. My guess is that old structures are weaker and they see the challenges as they often living" in" them...

THE CONTRIBUTION OF ICT TO CLIMATE CHANGE MITIGATION - The Davos papers

They deserve to be spread as much as possible so here are the two Davos papers on ICT and CO2 mitigation that I hope to help turning from words to action.

1. Contribution of ICT- submission to Governors (short paper)

2. Contribution of ICT- detailed paper (long paper)