On the 9th of November 2009 the leadership of the JSE, Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Russell Loubser and Deputy CEO, Nicky Newton King, hosted a meeting of business leaders from leading South African companies and associations which was convened by the National Business Initiative (NBI) in partnership with Business Unity South Africa (BUSA) to discuss the urgent need for a more coherent and proactive response by business to climate change.

Climate change became a central topic during the build up to Copenhagen since it will negatively impact all sectors of human livelihood especially the economic and political sectors. Although Copenhagen did not deliver a legally binding agreement, the resultant Copenhagen Accord was a great achievement in that it broke the stalemate between the developed and developing nations and rallied them together towards a common cause of containing the future global temperature regime to 2 degrees Celsius.

The promulgation by the South African government to accept emission reduction targets of 34% by 2020 and 42% by 2025, on condition that financial support by the developed countries is made available towards mitigation, adaptation, capacity building and technology transfer triggered various reactions across the sectors in the country. It was therefore a pre-emptive move from business at the CEO Roundtable on the 9th November, that the CEOs of NBI, André Fourie, Jerry Vilikazi of BUSA and Russel Loubser called on business leaders to engage proactively not only on how climate change would impact their businesses but also with regard to future engagement with government on this issue.

Key messages arising from this gathering included acknowledgement that business needed to demonstrate leadership as a sector in engaging with climate change both in understanding its implications across the business sectors and in contributing its voice to country positions. There was unanimous agreement that climate change needed to be treated with new urgency by business. Key messages that emerged at this ground-breaking gathering included:

• The need for business and government to agree on rules of engagement on this issue given that business will bear the brunt of curbing greenhouse gas emissions.
• The need for business to identify a few top priorities to act on while beginning a serious effort to engage with the required by science scenario presented in the Long Term Mitigation Study (LTMS).
• To proactively engage as a collective with government positions and policy .
• To respond to climate change in a manner that took cognizance of government's socioeconomic priorities.
• The need for business to actively engage in working groups to deliberate on mitigation and adaptation to climate change as well as the financial mechanisms and technology requirements to meet the required by science scenario of limiting temperature increase to 2 degrees Celsius against pre-industrial levels.
• The need for business widen its sphere of engagement with other sectors such as labour and civil society in concrete ways and through leading by example of best practice.

"The recent allocation of funding to South Africa through the Clean Technology Fund will put South Africa to the test in moving towards a low carbon economy while simultaneously addressing its socioeconomic challenges," says Fourie. Lord Nicholas Stern who delivered a pre-recorded address to the CEO roundtable dinner event reiterated previous warnings about the cost of inaction by business and alerted participants to the fact that a number of East Asian countries were making up to 70% of their investments into green recovery programmes in an effort to rebuild their economies. He urged South African business to take the lead, acknowledging the skills and leadership capability within South Africa to do so.

The NBI remains an advocate for business to address climate change and a proponent for responsible and voluntary action as well as to support business engagement with policy processes and implementation. The NBI through its engagements across various sectors of business and through its evidence based programmes such as the Voluntary Energy Efficiency Accord between business and government as well as the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) through which 68% of the top 100 JSE listed companies have responded, identified a number of key issues for consideration by business. These include:

• Prioritising energy efficiency both in response to reducing emissions and meeting the challenge of energy supply.
• Engagement with the need for South Africa to review its energy mix into the future.
• The need for comprehensive, measurable and verifiable data to inform investment, policy decisions and business strategy.

2010 will be the fourth year in which the NBI leads the CDP in South Africa and it is encouraging and noteworthy that the investment communities in South Africa and globally are increasingly recognizing the urgent need to address climate change. Apart from a recommitment of South African investor signatories to the CDP such as the Government Pension Fund, Element Investment Managers, Advantage Asset Management, The First Rand Group, Nedbank Group, Standard Bank Group, Mergence Africa Investments, Sanlam Investment Management and Investec (global signatories), new investor signatories for 2010 include Cadiz Holdings and Future Growth.

The South African government was one of the key contributors to the Copenhagen Accord and would therefore be expected to deliver on this. This means that government will forge ahead with policy formulation with business expected to also contribute towards this. Given this, the NBI together with its members, BUSA and partners will continue to escalate business awareness and action to addressing climate change and energy as key sustainability issues through its Climate and Energy Unit.

For more information on this strategic focus, please contact: Barney Kgope