The climate discourse has come a long way since the landmark Kyoto Ministerial. No longer are the alarming consequences of climate change disputed. The window to restrict the rise in world temperature to 2 degrees Centigrade over pre-industrial levels by the end of the century is rapidly closing on us.

Yet, the knowledge and technologies available to combat climate change have also increased exponentially. The Paris ministerial (COP 21) provides the right stage to break new ground. An emerging global business alliance to deal with climate change, along with a solutions-based approach in journalism, assumes importance in this context.

‘The B Team’, a group of 16 world business leaders such as Richard Branson, Ratan Tata and Ariana Huffington, has urged governments, businesses and civil society leaders arriving for the Paris ministerial to thrash out a long-term deal. The B Team — a group of companies that leads by example — is pushing for net zero emissions by 2050. Its plea coincides with a similar call by the global leaders group, The Elders, to scale up goals in view of the problem at hand.

This is also the time for ‘Solutions Journalism’ — taking a positivist, forward looking view of climate change rather than one that focuses only on the gridlocks — to make a great leap forward. Solutions & Co is a global journalistic alliance in partnership with 15 leading economic newspapers, and The Hindu BusinessLine is happy to be part of this effort. The central idea here is for governments, businesses, civil society groups and individuals to lead by example, with a bit of help in terms of technology and finance through improved global understanding. India is serious about reducing the emissions intensity of its processes. This involves two aspects: first, changing the composition of our energy mix in favour of solar, wind and nuclear power, and second, improving energy efficiency in the transport and construction sectors.

Enterprises and governments of the developed world could facilitate the smooth transfer of applications in wind, solar, hybrid and electric vehicles and clean coal, to name just a few areas. While progress on this front has been rather slow, there have been important breakthroughs. The transfer of technologies to replace HFCs (hydro-fluorocarbons) emitted in refrigeration and air-conditioning, has been encouraging.

While the focus of transport reform would have to be on making railways and inland waterways bear a greater share of freight and passenger traffic, the demand for automobiles, thanks to a growing middle-class, must be met by moving to electric vehicles. We need to make supercritical coal plants the norm.

The problems are daunting, but not insurmountable. Solutions & Co is an opportunity for us to cooperate with quality newspapers from around the world, advancing innovative solutions and narrating stories that have a bearing on the creation of a more equitable, sustainable and inclusive world.

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