South African companies should be aware that business is being given an opportunity to engage in global climate change negotiations not only as an observer, but through stakeholder programmes and side events.

“Business must realise that they are getting closer to the process and they must move quickly to respond to this,” said Deloitte director and South African lead for sustainability and climate change Duane Newman.

Until recently, business and civil society have been merely observers in the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change government-to-government negotiations. However, following pressure to be formally involved, external stakeholders are now being engaged in a process seen as part of the preparatory government negotiations.

At the recent informal Ministerial meeting in Pretoria where a number of negotiators gathered to eek out progress towards the seventeenth Conference of the Parties (COP 17), there was a business stakeholder meeting, which Newman said was not well attended.

Newman urged business to actively participate if they made the decision to attend COP 17 in Durban in November, early December.

Business should take the initiative to know the agenda of the side events and how they can get involved. The National Business Initiative (NBI) is reported to be responsible for much of the co-ordination of the South African business response.

Newman said that while business was engaging on the issue, it was not enough and not at the right level. He said there should be a broader business discussion on sustainability throughout an entire company, and not just at the top management levels, as often happens.

Business should understand what was taking place within the negotiations, because even though there may not be a global legally binding agreement, what takes place at the discussion informs national decision making, as well as global market trends.

Deloitte senior manager for sustainability and climate change Peter Oldcare noted that often business would avoid the climate change debate because it has a “green tinge”, and was viewed as irrelevant for daily operations. But he said that climate change posed risks and challenges that affect every aspect of business.

Newman warned that the focus in the legislative arena would soon move to ‘green economic empowerment’. “What started as global commitments are starting to have a real impact at the policy and regulatory levels. One only has to follow some of the debates on the carbon tax, renewable energy, climate change policy and new government green procurement to understand some of the dynamics at play.”

It was agreed that business should be supportive of the global negotiations process, but should not wait for a legally binding agreement to take action on climate change challenges.

The example of the Doha development round of negotiations, under the World Trade Organisation was given, where it was noted that despite no consensus having been reached, world trade did not stand still, but continued, although the processes were more complicated.

It was likely that if there was no global legally binding agreement, there would be more bilateral arrangements, which often put more of a compliance burden on business.