The Sunday Times: Business has given the thumbs-down to the outcome of the Copenhagen summit, saying political leaders fluffed a chance to get billions of pounds of investment flowing into green technology.
Richard Lambert, director-general of the CBI, said the climate-change meeting was a “missed opportunity, and a disappointing conclusion to two years of negotiations”.
“Business needs a clearer sense of direction if it is to make the enormous investments needed to shift towards a low-carbon economy,” he said after the summit ended yesterday.
The talks, organised by the United Nations, managed to avoid a complete collapse by reluctantly embracing an agreement between America, China and five emerging economies, including South Africa and Brazil. The deal, brokered by President Barack Obama, falls short of the binding cuts in carbon-dioxide emissions that were the summit’s goal.
Institutional investors said more progress was needed next year. “We urge world leaders to work quickly to agree a legally binding global framework that will kick-start the development of a fully functioning international carbon market and provide a context for alternative financing mechanisms,” said Peter Dunscombe, chairman of the Institutional Investors Group on Climate Change, which represents fund managers who control €4 trillion (£3.5 trillion) in assets.
Business leaders who attended the summit were annoyed that they were excluded from the talks — even though the private sector will have to pay for the move to low-carbon technology.
The UN-backed Principles for Responsible Investment group, which represents 650 institutions with $18 trillion in assets, criticised governments for excluding investors from the negotiations.
