INTERVIEW - Big business needs Kyoto, says industry chief
Date: 29-Aug-02
Country: SOUTH AFRICA
Author: Robin Pomeroy
"I believe that Kyoto should be ratified. It is not a perfect agreement, it has shortcomings but it's the only agreement we have got," Mark Moody-Stuart, former chief executive of Royal Dutch Shell, told Reuters late on Monday.
The treaty, which requires developed countries to cut greenhouse gas emissions blamed for trapping heat in the atmosphere with grave environmental consequences, was rejected by the United States which feared it would harm its economy.
But Moody-Stuart, who heads the main industry lobby group at the World Summit for Sustainable Development in Johannesburg said climate change was one of the few areas where international rules were essential.
"There are certain things where global governance is absolutely essential. Climate is one because it jumps across national borders. Trade is another, we need rules to regulate market access and so on," Moody-Stuart told Reuters Television in an interview.
The business chief's support for Kyoto, a legally binding international law which seeks to restrict industry's right to pollute, contrasts with his campaign for governments to be more business-friendly when making environmental rules.
Business Action for Sustainable Development (BASD), the main industry group at the 10-day summit, is promoting the idea of businesses working together with environmental and labour groups to tackle environmental and social problems.
PRACTICAL PARTNERSHIPS
Environmental groups, however, have accused big business of trying to hijack the summit and persuade governments to go soft on regulating industry excess, a charge Moody-Stuart denies.
The main restaurant area close to the convention centre is dominated by a display from German luxury carmaker BMW while the bulk of environmentalist and developing world rights groups are at a site some 20 km (12 miles) away, green activists say.
Some 200 corporations are represented by business lobby group Business Action for Sustainable Development.
Moody-Stuart said programmes such as the global mining initiative to address the environmental impact of mining and the global reporting initiative, a scheme to help companies publish their environmental and social performance, were good examples of industry moving ahead of regulators.
"Many of these initiatives are working in areas where it is not yet completely clear what needs to be done. What the partnership needs to do is hammer out what's really practical.
"The danger (of governments ignoring industry's input) is that you get legislation coming in too soon ... You will end up with a bunch of lousy legislation, untested, untried and with unpredictable consequences."
For Moody-Stuart, the summit due to end on September 4 should mark the point when governments and pressure groups start to give industry its due, not only as a creator of wealth, but, at best, as a responsible partner for improving the environment and livelihoods.
"From a business point of view, (what) we need is this acknowledgement that business is here, that without the involvement of business to deliver the economic benefits, you will not have sustainable development.
"But just the economic benefit is not enough and business is happy to work with others to deliver and make sure we address the environmental issues and we look at the social side."