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Making big money while greening the economy

VANCOUVER: The greenback may be faltering, but there’s a green invasion taking over the global economy.

An environmental perspective is no longer the preserve of scruffy Greenpeace types, with their nature songs and banner protests. It’s been appropriated by the men in suits with their calculators and PDAs who have just discovered the immense money-making possibilities involved in greening the economy.

Nowhere is this more evident than at the 2008 edition of Globe, a biennial trade fair and conference on business and environment held here this week.

The largest of its kind, the event positions itself as the business equivalent of the political and activist-dominated conferences organised by the United Nations.

The U.N. itself recognised the money implications of environmental concerns one and a half decades ago, creating the U.N. Environment Programme Finance Initiative which brings together 180 banks, insurers and asset managers from around the world. However, its head Paul Clements-Hunt, says attitudes have changed in the last two years.

“Till now, all financial institutions looked at the environment from a risk and cost perspective,” he said. “They are now also looking at the opportunities.”

The numbers at stake are huge. The global carbon trade market is currently worth $30 billion, a figure set to double by 2011. In 2006, venture capitalists pumped $2.9 billion into clean technologies.

The overall investment in renewable energy projects alone grew 60 per cent in 2007. Financial institutions representing $13 trillion in assets have vowed to follow U.N.-approved environmentally sound principles for investing.

In such a scenario, businesses are realising that first mover advantages are valuable.

“Being involved in a leadership position gives us a say in setting the frameworks ... helps us ensure a level-playing field [when it comes to government regulations],” said Kevin Moss of BT, the British telecom giant that is setting up captive wind farms to power 20 per cent of its energy needs.

Infosys Technologies’ Sandeep Dadlani feels Indian companies need to jump on the bandwagon quickly. “It is in India’s best interests to start driving the changes. We need to be involved in shaping the process of environmental economics, leaving aside the politics of whether the U.S. is doing it or China is doing it first.”

Belgium’s Prince Philippe, who has been in the forefront of environmental economics in Europe, agreed that all nations needed to ensure an equitable green trade system.

“We need to establish global standards, to be applied in a differential way to developing economies,” he said, borrowing the “common but different” terminology used in the political negotiations.

The Globe fair is crowded with companies jostling to establish their first mover advantage with the 10,000 conference visitors, including a 13-member Indian delegation. Apart from the plethora of new firms with catchy names such as Kyoto Planet or Free Energy International, blue-chip logos from Siemens, Shell and Rio Tinto Alcan catch the eye. The auto giants are out in full force, with Toyota, GM and Ford showing off their range of hybrid models, biofuel-driven vehicles and gas-free cars.

Amid the optimism, there were those such as Canadian environmental professor Mark Jaccard, who injected a note of caution. “Sometimes I think that conferences such as this can be the worst thing for climate change — and no, I’m not talking about the emissions from all the flight travel ... It is all about business promenading what we can do without government, as though we can solve the problem by ourselves.” Despite such optimistic talk for the last two decades at Globe, emissions had been steadily on the rise, he pointed out.

Lowering emissions requires more than easy gestures. It will take a level of technology transformation involving major sacrificial costs and tough government decisions.

“Those decisions are going to be even more difficult if business keeps convincing the government, the media, the public that fighting climate change can be left to the markets, that it’s an easy, profitable task,” Professor Jaccard warned.

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Making big money while greening the economy

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