Green Growth Leaders is happy to announce the plans for 2012. The year’s activities reflect the exciting opportunities and new ideas to document, demonstrate and communicate the benefits of green growth, that have surfaced the last year. Below you will find a short description of the individual projects and some of the dates that you should reserve already now.

I have just returned to Norway after three exciting and fast-moving days at the World Future Energy Summit (WFES) in Abu Dhabi. It left me with many varied impressions. Key decision makers, such as China’s prime minister Wen Jiabao, the UN General Secretary Ban Ki-Moon and the chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Rajendra Pachauri, as well as a number of business leaders, shared their thoughts on global challenges – including those linked to how we can transform today’s energy systems so that they are both sustainable and ensure access to energy for everyone. This is the fourth time I have attended this conference. What was new this time was the acknowledgement that renewable energy must to an even greater extent be looked at together with economic growth, climate changes and the combating of poverty.

The most interesting speeches were those given by Ban Ki-Moon and Wen Jiabao during the opening ceremony. The UN General Secretary is clear about the fact that reducing poverty and achieving access to clean energy go hand in hand, and took the opportunity in Abu Dhabi to launch 2012 as the international year for sustainable energy for everyone. The goal is to ensure universal access to modern energy; to double the rate of improvements in energy efficiency and double the percentage of renewable energy in the global energy supply. All this by 2030.

The new report “Less Energy- More Growth” describes the growth potential that comes from demanding more from less; why companies should form clusters, share knowledge and create a complete and exportable package of solutions; why energy efficiency is the shortest – and cheapest – way to cut emissions and reduce the demand for fossil fuels, and still holds a lot of potential in Denmark; why the future winners in the global business community will be those who adapt to a new energy-efficient reality; and what drive investments in energy efficiency. The study was published by Monday Morning in collaboration with Lean Energy Cluster.

On October 12th and 13th, 2011, hundreds of sustainability experts and leaders from more than 20 countries embarked on a journey into unknown territory. Convened in Copenhagen by Green Growth Leaders, they spent two days in workshops and at roundtables, working together to understand and describe how a new and more sustainable economic model can improve our lives and societies.

Simple as it may sound, this was in many ways a pioneering effort.
Our understanding of the term “sustainable growth” – i.e. how can improving the environment help grow the economy – is still in its infancy, as documented in the reports prepared for the event.

Ranbir Saran Das

Written by Mr. Ranbir Saran Das, Green Growth Councilor and Founder and Managing Director of Fairwood Group of Companies

Urban Mobility is one of the major issues facing the world today, especially in the rapidly growing cities in the developing world. Traffic problems, air pollution, noise pollution, inefficient systems are just a few of the problems which are today plaguing transportation. Most transportation systems in existence today are financially unviable and therefore government funded, and they suffer from significant quality and management issues.

Fairwood believes that green Initiatives are not just about Corporate and Social Responsibility  activities, but are a fundamentally sound investment. We believe that green initiatives should be the focus of economic activities of any company which is serious about the environment – and this is also the focus of Fairwood.

The legacy and baggage of mature urban transportation systems in the developed world (mainly focused around the car), has institutionalized significant vested interests, sometimes stifling the development of new and cleaner technologies. Although some advancement has occurred over the years, they have been in incremental stages, and still have the foundation in existing systems. They still use a lot of energy and pollute a lot, and are not even designed to transport people in mass quantities in cities. The problems are severe in rapidly urbanising economies – China, India and others.

At October 13th at the Take Lead conference Ms Connie Hedegaard and Mr. Yvo de Boer met once again in Copenhagen. This time however, the setting had changed a bit from the chaos and pressure of COP 15 in 2009.

Until 2009, conventional wisdom was that governments and intergovernmental institutions were the political powers responsible for tackling global climate change. Since then however, the wheel of history has turned and it seems that cities and businesses are now the ones looking after our planet. How can governments re-take the lead in advancing green growth? Moderated by Per Meilstrup, Climate Director at Monday Morning the two key actors of COP 15 set out to discuss just that. View or revisit the session here
 

Approx 400 participants from 21 countries on October 13th, 2011, adopted the Copenhagen Manifesto on Sustainable Growth, presented by The Green Growth Leaders at Take Lead in Copenhagen. The Manifestos headline is ”The Greatest Story Never Told”, because during Take Lead delegates presented a large body of evidence that the green economy is already emerging around us. The two days of conference pointed to the significance of focusing on the benefits and potential of the transition, underlining that it will bring prosperity and progress to communities all over the world. Read the full text of the Manifesto below.

It is as clear as can be when Mr. Richard Florida addresses the big changes we see in todays society – “The financial crises are simply a symbol of the fact that we are doing something wrong. The way we consume, the way we have created society and the way we live our lives“. “This crisis doesnt go away by itself and therefore we have to change our very way of life” he says. Only to continue as we know him and his thoughts on talent and creativity. “Nature dosent create any machines, but people do – because we are creative“. Creativety in humans are what makes our species different from the others on earth. This creativity should be used to create a cleaner capitalism, a clean and creative new economy. We should stop wasting our human resources and in stead build something bigger and better than what we already have. We should use the creativity and talent we have been given, because all humans are creative.

We can still live the good life without turning our way of living up side down Bjarke Ingels, Founding Partner of BIG states. By changing designs of buildings, which can in fact be very small and simple changes, we can come a long way. It all about making smarter and more thought through decisions in our creation of new buildings. “We need to find ways of globalizing green anticipation” he said.

Mr. Frank Jensen, Lord Mayor, City of Copenhagen welcomes the the many delegates at the Copenhagen City Hall and makes the introducing remarks together with Erik Rasmussen, CEO at Monday Morning.
Being the Mayor of a city, which initiatives to enhance the use of bicycles have exceeded may other attempts, it comes natural for the Mayor to perspectivate the impact bicycling have had on a small scale in Denmark to a broughter scale as in e.g. Brazil “Imagine what would happen if half the population in Sao Paulo took their bike instead of their car.”

Mr. Jensens point exactly, that political visions and initiatives made to make changes, needs to be fostered at high levels are being emphasized by UC Berkeley Professor John Zysman who puts it this way “One have to have a political vision to make the necessary change needed”.

One of the reasons we have not attained the progress within green growth we all hope for Cisco Vice President Mr. Simon Willis links to the lack of innovation in institutions that he calls essential “The lack of innovation in institutions are essential to establish green growth”. This is just one aspect of the challenges we are facing, but others emerge with the rise of new developing economies. “There is a reason to be concerned about what is happening in China” Mr. Jonathan Watts says, because China is different due to its great scale and the pace of its growth. When a country of this scale are trying to engineer a civilization to accommodate a society of the 21th century business as usual is not an option.

And so the discussions continue…