Kuala Lumpur, 5 June 2009
The 6th World Chambers Congress has highlighted global trends in demographics, migration and industrialization that are putting pressure on vital resources such as food, water, and energy. In particular, the current global economic crisis and the impacts of climate change were identified as two major challenges that transcend national borders and require concerted international cooperation.
Companies and chambers of commerce have a critical role to play in meeting these challenges together with governments. However, more effective ways of governing an interdependent world are needed.
This Congress has taken place in the midst of the worse global recession since the Great Depression of the 1930s. Governments must avoid the temptation to seek isolation from the global crisis through protectionist measures to restrict imports and foreign investments.
Efforts to put globalization in reverse must be resisted. Globalization has raised some worrying issues that remain to be adequately addressed, and today’s economic crisis is raising others. However, globalization has pulled millions of people out of poverty in recent years. We must recall that economic growth and open trade provide the best conditions for economic, environmental and social progress.
Climate change is perhaps the best example of a global problem requiring a global solution. The current year is particularly significant as negotiations on a United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) intensify with a view towards reaching a consensus in Copenhagen this December on a post-2012 framework to regulate green house gas emissions. A clear and predictable framework is needed to allow business to stimulate investment and deploy technology on the necessary scale to stabilize emissions.
A future framework must facilitate the scaling-up of research and development of clean energy technologies through new financial mechanisms. Immediate deployment of cost-effective existing technologies should be encouraged. Innovative public-private partnerships that foster rapid development of advanced technologies to reduce emissions will also play a pivotal role.
ICC and its World Chambers Federation stand ready to contribute business solutions to these pressing global issues.
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