Balancing ecology issues and business interests

Whisper it gently – very gently indeed – but there are signs of leadership on the vexed issue of how ecological and business issues mix. I'm no fan of the hidden agenda of control that underpins many who want to tell other people that they are dirty polluters and instruct them in the ways of ecological righteousness.

Nevertheless, I'm interested by some of the optimistic noises coming out of a recent conference in Oslo on re-forestation and stopping the erosion of existing forests. And the (as I write) ongoing UN climate talks in Bonn – a preparatory meeting for the next big talkfest in Mexico – seem to be going well…

There are a few ifs and buts, as there always are when large sums of money are involved, but the broad thrust of things is that after the REDD+ Partnership Agreement (REDD is forestry protocol) some $4 billion (Dh14.69bn) is now available to encourage developing economies to do as the West says, not do as it did. A junior minister of the new UK government attended the Oslo conference, and got all excited about it: Greg Barker is Britain's climate change minister: "The interim REDD+ Partnership Agreement puts the world on course to delivering scaled up early action to tackle deforestation and represents a real breakthrough in making progress on keeping global temperatures below 2C," he said.

"The onus is now on all of us to support real action on the ground in rainforest nations to stop vast acres of forests disappearing. This means that finance must also be scaled up in the long term and that this can only be achieved in partnership with the private sector."

But not all the developing countries liked what's being offered. With an economy growing at seven per cent last year, India simply does not want economic imperialism in the form of being told when and how it can develop its own industry – even if the developed countries are happy to pay to have their policies implemented. A middle view of the way forward is the Indian plea for a two-tier REDD development plan.

On top of that, the European Commission wants to slash a full 30 per cent (based on 1990 levels) from emissions by member countries by 2020. This won't be cheap, if it's achieved, with cost estimates of some $50 billion per annum. I've always felt that ecological soundness was an expensive luxury that would fall by the wayside in difficult times. Maybe I was wrong. I doubt it, but I hope so.

- The writer is a journalist, author and commentator on international business affairs. The views expressed are his own

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