Climate change offers opportunities for canny businesspeople

• A deal that supports, through a mixture of public and private financing, the infrastructure required to shift to a low-carbon economy.

With these straightforward principles at its core, a global deal signed in Copenhagen can fire the starting pistol for the new industrial revolution, the low-carbon revolution, creating significant growth, job creation and economic development throughout the world.

At this time of financial turmoil, a global deal in Copenhagen needs to bring world leaders together in a strong, clear message to business: Follow the low carbon path, we will support you all the way.

Lars G. Josefsson, president and CEO of Vattenfall, Europe’s fifth-largest generator of electricity, is a member of the UN secretary-general’s Advisory Group on Energy and Climate; Jamshyd N. Godrej is chairman of Godrej & Boyce, one of India’s largest engineering and consumer products companies, and a former president of the Confederation of Indian Industry; Peter A. Darbee is chairman of the board, chief executive officer and president of PG&E Corporation; Steve Holliday is chief executive of National Grid, which owns the high-voltage electricity transmission network in England and Wales and operates the system across Great Britain.

Copyright: Project Syndicate