When Copenhagen hosted the United Nations Climate Change Conference in 2009, all eyes were on the prime ministers, presidents and national negotiators who descended on the Danish capital. News teams from around the world were watching, recording every twist and turn of the talks as they unfolded over a period of three weeks. As civil servants and politicians strove to agree to a formula that would help bring about a significant reduction in CO2 emissions, a throng of lobbyists and protesters also gathered.
Against this dramatic backdrop, UN officials carried out crucial work behind the scenes. Summit meetings on this scale require a huge amount of preparation and coordination. As Yvo de Boer, then Secretary General of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change recalls, the diversity of interests represented by those attending the conference meant officials faced a delicate and often tricky balancing act.
“We were involved in a very complex negotiation,” recalls Mr. de Boer. “The interests of the individual nations who attended were often divergent. For instance, on the one hand were island people concerned about the destruction of their homelands as sea levels rose, on the other were oil-producing countries concerned about their revenues.” Added to this potentially volatile mix were the emerging industrial nations, such as China and India and the advanced nations of the West. All had a different take on the climate change issue and its solutions.
Reaching level ground
Faced with such conflicting standpoints, Mr. de Boer says the greatest challenge was simply to understand the interests of individual countries and groups of nations. “People take positions and express certain views,” he says. “The first thing I had to do was to fully understand the underlying interests. From there you can craft a solution.”
The agenda set by the UN secretariat to some extent reflected the broad span of opinions and positioning. “The second challenge we faced was to come up with an agenda that was as broad as possible,” he says. “That was necessary in order to establish a consensus on the objectives.”
The UN’s preparatory work ensured the attendance of 120 world leaders and, as de Boer points out, their presence was vital not only in practical but also symbolic terms. “Any decisions made by governments on climate change have a wide-ranging impact,” he says. “Climate policies affect households, economies, energy policies and transport planning, so it’s very important that the political leaders are engaged.”
Progress made
The Copenhagen talks didn’t deliver the solid, binding successor to the Kyoto Protocol that many had hoped for, but Mr. de Boer believes real progress was made. “Climate change was put on the global agenda,” he says. “The Kyoto accord only applied to industrialized countries. At Copenhagen, we saw the seeds of a global solution.”
The Copenhagen talks didn’t deliver the solid, binding successor to the Kyoto Protocol that many had hoped for, but Mr. de Boer believes real progress was made. “Climate change was put on the global agenda,” he says. “The Kyoto accord only applied to industrialized countries. At Copenhagen, we saw the seeds of a global solution.”
Indeed, positive steps have already been taken, with 40 countries signing up to an action plan, major industrial countries agreeing to CO2 targets and progress made over forestry strategy. “What that means is that we have entered a phase of implantation,” adds de Boer.
The move to KPMG
The transition from a protracted period of planning, agenda-setting and facilitation to a new era of tangible measures implemented at national and international level marked something of watershed in Mr. de Boer’s own career. In February 2010, just a couple of months after Copenhagen, he stepped down from his UN role in order to become Global Advisor on Climate Change & Sustainability at KPMG in the UK.
As Mr. de Boer explains, his new role with KPMG in the UK is to formulate strategies while developing services that can be used to help private and public sector organizations deliver on their environmental objectives and obligations. He will also be working with international bodies, such as the World Economic Forum, to help set the continuing agenda. It is, he acknowledges, a significantly different role. “With the UN, my focus was very much on strategy and working with governments. Now, the focus is on understanding a complex and evolving world from the perspective of companies.”
A change of perspective
His professional perspective may have changed, but Mr. de Boer offers a wealth of knowledge and experience directly relevant to the requirements of those private sector companies grappling with the implications of climate change policy. “One of the things I bring to the job is an understanding of how climate change is shaping the global agenda,” he says. “Equally important, I bring an understanding of how this will affect countries and companies.”
But what does this mean in practice? Well, Mr. de Boer cites the example of a recent project involving KPMG International and member firm clients from the banking and private equity industries. “What we’ve been doing is helping them understand what the climate change agenda will mean for them in terms of the risks and opportunities.” In a separate project, de Boer and KPMG have been advising retailers on sustainability issues that may affect their supply chain.
The desire for change
Mr. de Boer detects a genuine appetite on the part of the business community to understand how environmental and climate change policies will affect them, coupled with a recognition that measures taken by governments to combat a warming planet simply cannot be seen as an imposition. “Companies are keen to act responsibly and do what they do in the best possible way,” he says.
Much has been talked about the opportunities generated by the green economy, but, as Mr. de Boer acknowledges, there will be losers as well as winners. Although energy producers and heavy consumers will be particularly affected, he stresses all companies can take steps to address the risks. “For instance, energy companies should be moving now into sustainable energy,” he says.
Few if any companies will remain unaffected by climate change policy. “Political progress means that climate change and sustainability are rising up the political agenda,” says de Boer. It’s a fact that makes both his own expertise and that of his KPMG colleagues ever more important.