Big business against technology transfer and for exclusive deals of the developed world

Today ( Friday 5 December) the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) organised a side event on 'the business contribution to a new climate agreement'.

With 65 lobbyists, the WBCSD is one of the bigger business lobbying bodies in Poznan. It represents over 200 transnational corporations, most of them headquartered in Europe, Japan and North America, employing 'over 3 million employees and a combined turnover of 7 trillion dollars'.

The meeting happened in a big meeting room in the main conference building with probably more than a hundred watchful attendees. WBCSD advocated a "sectoral approach" for managing emissions and defended corporate intellectual property over much-needed technology transfer.



Rely on sectoral agreements

The "sectoral approach" is in effect an excuse to exempt energy intensive industries from global emission reduction schemes. The WBCSD recommends that 'willing' countries make voluntary, industry-driven sectoral agreements. These agreement will not be part of the UN framework, but multilateral agreements between 'sovereign nations' or a 'select group of Parties at their own will'. They will include only the producer countries from a specific sector.

WBCSD runs a number of projects which are preparing these agreements, the most advanced of which is for the cement sector. Other projects have been initiated with the steel and paper industry. The damage from the emissions from these industries are shared by the whole planet, but it's the poorest countries that will face the biggest challenges in adapting to the impacts they cause.

But WBCSD wants the pace of reduction (slow?)to be decided by the developed partners alone. It acknowledges the opposition of developing countries to this nontransparent way of acting in closed special groups, but it says in substance that overthrowing this resistance is the only solution business accepts.

Protect intellectual property

On access to intellectual property and the much needed technology transfer that will permit to the Global South to deal with urgent mitigation and adaptation challenges, WBCSD representatives called it "completely unacceptable for industry" that a UN climate agreement would include compulsory licensing of patents. They want technology transfer only to take place through projects that require the participation of multinationals.

Promoting 'clean' coal and nuclear

At the side-event, WBSCD representatives argued that "the construction of thousands of CCS power stations and seven hundred new nuclear plants is needed for an effective mitigation of climate change".

Stronger role for business in decisionmaking

WBSCD is asking an even stronger role for business in decision making, saying that negotiators should stop "closing their ears" to business demands and abandon "old diplomatic methods". "Copenhagen should be different from Kyoto and reflect the real world experience" that business supposedly brings in.

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