Source: World Economic Forum
URL: http://www.weforum.org/sessions/summary/shifting-fortunes-towards-new-climate-framework
Date: 24/01/2013
Event: Lord Stern: "how do you get people to change their view of what's responsible?"
Attribution: World Economic Forum
People:
Renat Heuberger: Nick, we're just coming out of a very interesting session on the future climate framework. You have been moderating this session - what is your main takeaway? What has come out of this session?
Lord Stern: We started with a question - a crucial question, and one which focussed our thought, and that is: why do we expect to do better, on the road from Doha - the last UNCCC meeting - to Paris, the one in 2015, where the world has declared it wants to make an agreement? Why should we do better on that path, and getting an agreement, than we did do, when we tried to go from Bali in 2007 to Copenhagen in 2009?
Renat Heuberger: Few participants seemed to have very high hopes on binding targets in 2015, and rather focussed more on other things, like networks of cities, networks of agribusiness, to get it right.
Lord Stern: I think if you build in pessimism, it's generally self-fulfilling. If you rephrase it and say "What do we have to do?" - and we argued that we have to get much stronger leadership from the big countries of the world, particularly the USA, China, and thinking of Europe as a regional grouping. If those three could get together and say "This is an exciting road to follow, and we'll work together to make that happen", as opposed to aversion, which is arm-wrestling.
The second thing we looked at that will help us get there is good examples. It's difficult to ask people to do what they don't understand. but actually a lot of this kind of thing, a movement to low-carbon economy, is happening. So there are examples at the country level, of radical change. There are examples of cities that are changing and leading. There are examples of sectors that are changing quickly in certain countries.
And the final thing on our list was: how do you get people to change their view of what's responsible?
Renat Heuberger: What I found interesting, in this regard, was also that one thing we should definitely do better, on the road to Paris, is engage more with the people, to bring the dialogue back to the citizens, and to make them part of it, rather than only talking among experts.
Lord Stern: That's absolutely crucial. Politicians have to feel that they're not giving anything up, that they're actually embracing a new opportunity, and they're doing what the people are asking them to do.