As a professional environmentalist and the chief executive officer of the Business Environment Council, I must respond to Simon Patkin's negative opinion of the Stern Review on the Economics of Climate Change and his glowing support of popular fiction as a credible guide to the motives of green advocates, "Don't be fooled by alarmists on global warming" (November 5). Mr Patkin chooses to make light of the scientific evidence and to ignore the extensive support it has gained in both the private and public sectors worldwide.
Rightly alarming in the extreme case, the Stern review summarises the key climate change facts and the likely costs of impacts such as extreme weather events or sea level rises. While some may feel that the measures required to abate climate change are a dose of bitter medicine, I contend that the positive actions proposed would actually be a tonic for businesses, making them more efficient in environmental and economic terms. My view is backed up by case histories of HSBC, Fook Tin Technologies, Swire, Sun Hung Kai, and Towngas, to name but a few, which have acted in enlightened self interest to address significant environmental issues associated with their operations.
The sentiment among leading businesses is that we do not need to debate the causal link between anthropogenic emissions and climate change, but that we need to move on to formulate the strategies and implementation plans for a local response, and that we need to do this without unnecessary delay.
Andrew Thomson, Chief Executive Officer, Business Environment Council