Ekos Calls On Private Sector To Show Climate Leadership

Ekos Calls On Private Sector To Show Climate Leadership

Carbon financing entrepreneur Sean Weaver of Ekos is calling on the New Zealand private sector to help the government in climate change ambitions by showing more leadership in climate change responsibility. Dr Weaver was responding to a call by prominent NZ business leaders for the government to get tough on climate change (NZ Herald 22 November).

“It’s also time for the New Zealand private sector to get tough on climate change and lead from the front. Then the government will more likely support a serious low carbon effort. It has got to be a team approach with both government and the private sector showing leadership at scale,” he said.

Dr Weaver said that one way the private sector can show leadership in climate change is for carbon neutrality to become the norm. Ekos has put its money where its mouth is by establishing a low cost carbon neutrality pathway as a “second generation” carbon neutrality provider in the New Zealand carbon market.

“We see far too much being spent on expensive overheads and certification costs in the carbon neutrality space. This is putting lots of larger businesses off carbon neutrality and making it prohibitively expensive for SMEs,” he said.

“If we are serious about building a low carbon economy that can successfully compete in the international market we need to get on with it and stop being a corporate responsibility laggard.”

A 2013 KPMG survey of corporate responsibility globally showed that the New Zealand private sector is dragging its feet. Of the 41 countries surveyed, NZ was fourth from the bottom above Israel, United Arab Emirates, Kazakhstan and Greece. In contrast Australia, North America (including Mexico), most of Europe and even Malaysia were performing better than us.

“When the private sector lifts its climate change game it will occupy the high ground and find it far easier to convince successive governments to play a more ambitious enabling role,” Weaver said.

…ends

For more information:

http://www.ekos.org.nz/

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