Richard Branson Wages War on CO2 Amid Government Sluggishness
(Bloomberg) Richard Branson has lent his name and directed his profits to the search for carbon-light business models. Virgin Airlines is developing biofuels. The Carbon War Room works with industry to identify market opportunities that can make money and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. At the UN Rio+20 Sustainability Summit, he signed on his support to a Greenpeace call banning Arctic oil drilling. I caught up with him at the world green summit, one of dozens of side events that have sprouted up around the UN's Rio+20 Summit.
Q: No one seems happy with the negotiated document coming out of Rio. What's the role of companies going forward?
A: The role of companies is all the more important for the world because so little has come out of governments. Governments could have made some big announcements this week that wouldn’t have cost their countries any money -- that could have made their companies money. They could have got rid of the subsidy on fossil fuels, which would have helped start a complete clean industry and given it the massive boost it needed and save their countries money. They chose not to do that. They could have agreed to protect the open seas and police the open seas instead of letting them carry on getting decimated by fishing and so on. So companies have really got to step in and do the best they can without the proper ground rules set by governments.
Q: Will any progress come out of the event overall?
A: It was basically a tremendous disappointment, with lots of words like "We hope" and "We plan to," but no specific actions at all. Copenhagen was disappointing. Cancun was disappointing. And now, sadly, Rio is disappointing. Behind the scenes there are lots of fantastic initiatives, but [there's] one big thing that governments could do -- get rid of fossil fuel subsidies. It’s something I think every single government could do. The fossil fuel industry is making tons of money. It’s not going to harm them very much and it would be the one move which could get the whole world back on track. ....................(more)
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