Wales Sustainable Business Summit

Carwyn Jones:

We're interested in maximising the long term wellbeing of our people. Talking of vibrant communities and avoiding damage or degradation to our planet whilst making profit.

Wales has been strong on tackling climate change, with a moral imperative even where the solution is complex. We know that the world cannot afford to wait and we need to do what we can in Wales - this has huge implications in all areas, and is vital to the success of our economy. Nicholas Stern's 'risk of -20% to world economy' needs to be taken seriously.

'To turn the crisis into an opportunity we need a vision and the determination to push it through'

In the field of renewables, there are huge opportunities for Wales, and the environmental benefits need to be mirrored by and econimic spin off. We want to see companies leading the world, showing susccessful companies who are contributing towards a sustainable future, making profit on the way.

One of the greatest prizes of all is to safeguard our planet for future generations.

Big Sustainability Summit (5)

Janos Pasztor, Director of the UN Global Sustainability Panel.

The Secretary General asked us to think big, and stay focused. We are in trouble. How come we didn't manage to implement something that everyone seems to agree with?

The concept of SD hasn't really been taken up by those who matter. The env and social pillars don't matter to the people running the economic pillar, from where decisions are made.

We really need new visions which much start with an economic framework that focuses on people and a much stronger ethical orientation of the global markets

Investment. SD is seen as extra cost when there is pressure on incremental costs. It's a major issue. Developing countries saying 'you have to pay'. Dev'd countries said yes and didn't pay.

Governance of the economic framework simply doesn't reflect the issues that are actually out there. Focused on money and profit, not production. We need serious attempts to alleviate poverty - it's absolutely crucial

Big Sustainability Summit (4)

George Varughese, India. How do we scale up these ideas despite government? It's people's groups that can synergise to make it happen. Why is India important? There are tectonic changes happening in developing economies that need to be taken into consideration, or we'll end up in trouble together. Poverty wasn't mentioned this morning - approximately 1/4 of our country is already having trouble with extremism, terrorism etc - it's a microcosm of the world. 

Our ecosystems and challenges are on the brink. We did a project on low carbon climate resilient pathways for India. Challenges:

1. How do you steer a rapidly developing economy that is developing more and more. 

2. Integrating the poor communities to get beyong 'India Shining' for only middle class people - the global context cannot be ignored, even when govt do not know what to do

3. Population growth. By 2030, India's population will be 1.5bn. Young India wil not accept the lifestyle that their parents accepted; what is a lifestyle that 800m can live sustainably?

4. Ecosystem degradation; we are one of the 17 mega-diverse countries, with biodiversity under threat

5. Carbon - India the 4th largest consumer; if we start consuming like western consumers, the whole planet is dead. If we do it with coal, there would be no chance. How? Build a skills base. Find the money domestically. Re-set the institutional base in India

Do not ignore poverty, or it will walk all over you.

Do not pour money into the less developed countries. Put small amounts into innovation, and scale up social enterprises. Get IPR on renewables globally owned.

Big Sustainability Summit (2)

London, St Davids Day, 2011

Joan Whalley, Chair UK Government Environmental Audit Committee. It's all very well govt saying that there's an increased role for the EAC, but without additional resources, it's hard to see where the expertise that's needed is coming from. EAC meet once a week and will do everything that we can, but that's no substitute for the engine room that was the SDC. It's up to each of us to see how we can link in the scrutiny from our own organisations into parliament to ensure that there informed decisions based on scientific information.

The number of politicians making environmental enquiries is not high. "A huge amount of work can be done by people writing to their MPs, encouraging them to raise issues in Parliament" - and remember how much power we can have to provide evidence, and collect that evidence around the UK.

Big Sustainability Summit

London, St David's Day 2011

What will it take to get sustainability up to speed. Jonathan Porritt up first. Where's the real stuff happening? Unilver, M&S Plan A, the Coop commitment to increase its membership from 8m to 20m by 2020 and put sustainability deep, and fully into its supply chain. When are people (in government?) going to understand the scale of their ambition? If we don't draw down optimism from that source, we'll be blind to what is going on.

Transition Towns are forming an extraordinary collective of organisations who seem to be immune to the despair that's abounding elsewhere. Community groups thought that selling off the forests was utterly unacceptable - not one of the national NGPO's spoke out - what the community groups was astonishing.

Business and community groups are shaping the context around the issues, aggregating them to a scale where they overcome the powerlessness. The scaling up that's most important is in our minds - helping people see it as a framework for making sense. How do we get SD into that shaping place at the front of our minds.

What's key?

Instinctive connectivity - being able to join the issues quickly and overcome the disjointedness

A default empathy position - this is not a one person, a one community position - it's a one world problem that requires us to stop seeing others as the other.