Two years ago the buzz words were climate change, global warming and Al Gore…
Now we’re inundated with references to credit crunch, global financial crisis, regulation and the worlds worst depression since the last great depression…
The global financial crisis is a truth that we’re not quite feeling yet over in Australia.. there’s alot of talk, but nothing visibly out of the ordinary… and climate change.. well, as we sit in the comfort of our climate-controlled offices its not difficult to forget about how our Pacific neighbours are quickly (relatively speaking) and literally sinking.
I’ve got a lot to say on this battle of economics and the environment.. and probably alot more to learn. But a letter just landed on my desk that starts this debate of far better than I could. Its an article written by our highly regarded Prime Minister Kevin Rudd. Have a read of it here. Then we can discuss.
You can also see the debate we’re currently having over on the Reckitt Benckiser LinkedIn page.
Tags: CSR, Environment, global financial crisis, Sustainability
“The intellectual challenge … is not just to repudiate the neo-liberal extremism that has landed us in this mess, but to advance the case that the social-democratic state offers the best guarantee of preserving the productive capacity of properly regulated competitive markets, while ensuring that government is the regulator, that government is the funder or provider of public goods and that government offsets the inevitable inequalities of the market…”
I personally think we’ve got a winner on our hands, at least with his economic orientation. I suppose environment comes in with recognising the role of government as the funder of public goods and “properly regulated” markets. And I guess therefore, from here depends on government policies and the implementation of them. He signed Kyoto for starters, let’s hope the ball keeps rolling with more than just lip service.
Definately agree we have a winner on our hands… The biggest barrier to change is to get people to agree and commit to an objective… because once that happens, inertia takes care of the rest.
But that barrier is also incredibly hard to overcome. Signing Kyoto protocol is one massive step and signifies our governments commitment to environmental sustainability.. now its about the private sector stepping up to the challenge and showing their commitment to the same cause. But how do you encourage that commitment when the rewards are of a public nature?… how do we, as the public stakeholders and shareholders in these private companies, promote/enforce a public environmental objective?
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