I attended a fascinating lunch today on what the climate change world will look like post Copenhagen.

The top line summary was that while it would be nice to think a solution will be politically led, the reality is that it simply won’t be. It will be up to local communities, business and individuals to drive change.

Despite this, the themes that seemed to emerge in the question and answer session that followed coalesced around two alternatives, both strangely being political.

1. One was what I will term the ‘China Solution’. Suddenly a dictatorship capable of making autocratic decisions for the common good is seen as being superior than Western Democracy. Why? Because according to some present today  ‘democracy is incapable of responding’. Wow. What fascinates us is that the underlying assumption here is that climate change still requires a political response. From where we sit, it would seem strange that people don’t expect a political solution but still expect their leaders to provide one. In Australia the current  ’insulation policy’ disaster only proves how incapable Government, of any political side, is of driving any major change.
2. The second issue was Communication. It was proposed that people don’t act on climate change because they don’t understand what it means. So what is required is further education of the masses. However, the irony of these comments is that the climate change issue and debate has already developed its own lexicon of jargon and complexity. It appeared that those involved in the debate, rather than attempting to clarify what is a complex science, often only seek to demonstrate their mastery of the jargon at the expense of clarity and cogent argument. The simple fact is that jargon alienates people. The vast majority of Australians are (sadly) more familiar with the language of the “Biggest Loser” and “Idol” that the language used by the protagonists in the Climate Change debate.

So here’s my take for consideration about how to get business more engaged with this issue.

Climate change will not be affected by the UN, politics, policy statements, conferences, conventions, treaties and protocols. Because at the end of the day climate change is not about any of these things.
Climate change is all about one thing, and one thing only. Money.

The Chinese know this and have been taking a long term ‘monopolistic’ view on this and have now amassed stakes in rare earth metals, solar technologies, wind, etc. You can check out a great article in the New York Times that illustrates exactly what this means for the West. So just as the American and Brits tied up the petroleum industry in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, so to ‘China Inc.’ is taking a big position in the next ‘energy’ revolution.

Why? Because it’s a sure fire way to make money.

So what should business do in response to climate change? Make money.