IoD Scotland Autumn 2021
Institute of Directors Scotland, business magazine, directors
Institute of Directors Scotland, business magazine, directors
Create successful ePaper yourself
Turn your PDF publications into a flip-book with our unique Google optimized e-Paper software.
Spotlight interview: David Miliband<br />
Business needs to lead –<br />
but avoid temptation to<br />
hide your carbon output<br />
Former UK Foreign Secretary David<br />
Miliband didn’t mince his words on<br />
the issue of climate change as he took<br />
part in the opening keynote interview<br />
with journalist and broadcaster Halla<br />
Mohieddeen.<br />
Worldwide, politicians “have had<br />
their heads in the sand” over<br />
climate change, he said,<br />
and the current crisis over<br />
the environment was the<br />
result of “a failure of<br />
leadership for over 30<br />
years ... we’re living in a<br />
vacuum of leadership at<br />
the most dangerous time<br />
since the end of the Cold<br />
War,” he said.<br />
Miliband – now President<br />
and CEO of the New Yorkbased<br />
International Rescue<br />
Committee – told conference that Covid<br />
had highlighted the weakness of global<br />
institutions, and the only response<br />
should be a strengthening of bodies<br />
such as the World Health Organization<br />
and UN groups working on the<br />
environment. If WHO had been properly<br />
funded and had real capacity for global<br />
action, the Covid pandemic could have<br />
been nipped in the bud early: how much<br />
has governmental responses cost the<br />
world since the start of 2020?<br />
He was alarmed by the response to<br />
the recent UN IPCC report on climate<br />
change, which he described as “a red<br />
flag demanding action: we need to be on<br />
a war footing to beat climate change.”<br />
The lack of a co-ordinated response<br />
suggested the lessons of Covid-19 – that<br />
only by working together can we emerge<br />
from the pandemic together – had not<br />
been learned, and he called on business<br />
leaders to make climate change their<br />
number one priority.<br />
Those worried about whether<br />
businesses could afford to make the<br />
transition to carbon Net Zero were<br />
warned that “inaction will cost<br />
considerably more”, using the<br />
devastation caused by recent<br />
flooding in Europe and<br />
wildfires in North America<br />
as his evidence.<br />
Businesses needed<br />
to adopt a policy of<br />
decarbonisation now,<br />
and he was critical of<br />
those happy to adopt<br />
green washing policies<br />
that look good on paper but<br />
achieve little. “Decarbonisation<br />
is the only way forward. You<br />
cannot clean up the planet by exporting<br />
your emissions elsewhere.<br />
“It’s no good thinking you can<br />
compensate for your emissions by<br />
planting a tree or using carbon sinks.”<br />
“Pick metrics you can understand to<br />
measure your carbon footprint and take<br />
steps now to reduce it.”<br />
Too many were content with ‘Happy<br />
Talk’ – a phrase that emerged from the<br />
Vietnam War to describe commanders<br />
who only told their superiors the good<br />
news, leaving out the bad. “We<br />
need action; we need to highlight<br />
progress on carbon emissions without<br />
glossing over those areas where<br />
improvements have not been made.”<br />
He wasn’t optimistic that a solution<br />
could be found but he did point out that<br />
society had “more tools at our disposal<br />
than ever before to come up with the<br />
“A child born<br />
during COP26 will<br />
be 29 by the time the<br />
UK meets its target<br />
of Net Zero... doesn’t<br />
that feel really slow<br />
to you?”<br />
Kate Chambers<br />
answers.”<br />
However, he remained baffled that in<br />
the USA, many still had their heads in the<br />
sand on climate change, “despite record<br />
heatwaves, droughts and wildfires.”<br />
“We must challenge the deniers; speak<br />
truth to power where necessary.”<br />
The response to Covid-19 has been<br />
likened to that of a nation going to<br />
war, and he was adamant that a similar<br />
approached was required on climate<br />
change.<br />
Business has a key role, he stressed,<br />
by using its capacity for innovation.<br />
Businesses sheltering behind high<br />
carbon strategies will be found out,<br />
“either by investors moving away, your<br />
customer base collapsing or you will find<br />
your supply chain disrupted.”<br />
Business leaders should also<br />
remember that they hold great sway<br />
with the government. “The power of<br />
your voice cannot be overestimated;<br />
if business speaks with clarity,<br />
governments will listen.”<br />
He said he was optimistic about<br />
success as he believed people had the<br />
capacity to do great things; what was<br />
important was to “expose and challenge<br />
those who deny the science, confront<br />
the forces that ally with them.<br />
“We have a duty to strangers, to<br />
reassert our common humanity.”<br />
Actionable insights<br />
n Develop your metrics – figure out what you need to<br />
measure. Connect with the help that is out there and learn<br />
from nature while you’re at it!<br />
n Put these issues on your agenda – at every board meeting<br />
(and think of the COP26 baby while you’re there)<br />
n Be honest about where we are – but connect and learn from<br />
those making a difference to give you hope and inspiration<br />
“We need<br />
to expose those<br />
who challenge the<br />
science... we have a<br />
duty to strangers, to<br />
reassert our common<br />
humanity”<br />
David Miliband<br />
<strong>Autumn</strong> <strong>2021</strong><br />
iod.com<br />
29