Getting past the public-private divide may be COP15's most enduring achievement

The hand-wringing over the failure to reach consensus on targets and timetables for reducing greenhouse gas emissions at December's United Nations Climate Change Summit in Copenhagen may continue for some time to come, particularly after last week's resignation of UNFCCC chairman Yvo de Boer.

But looking beyond the effort to reach a strong international agreement, the excitement that COP15 has generated among businesses for developing market-based initiatives and public-private collaborations that will mitigate climate change is only just beginning to be felt. Whether it's green cities, clean vehicle partnerships or trading schemes that monetise the cost of carbon, COP15 has made it clear that the private sector is not waiting for a government consensus to develop.

"If practical solutions to the problem of climate change are going to be found, financed and implemented, it is global firms that will get it done," says Anant K Sundaram, visiting professor of business administration at Dartmouth's Tuck School of Business. He says that while the international public policy apparatus – including the UN – is needed to enable and oversee this, "it needs to get out of the way" so that companies can deliver technology solutions in energy efficiency, energy alternatives and capturing and storing carbon on a scale that is meaningful.

Nowhere was positive momentum for engaging private sector expertise and financial support more on display than in efforts to promote REDD, or Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation in Developing Countries. REDD supports forest conservation by creating a mechanism whereby carbon emitting businesses in one country can buy offsets in the form of pollution allowances that essentially pay for the upkeep and preservation of rainforests in poorer countries.

Stewart Maginnis, director of environment and development at IUCN, a Switzerland-based environmental conservation group, says that COP15 produced significant progress in spreading understanding of REDD.

"A clear idea of what is required to make REDD-plus work has now emerged, with real potential to contribute up to 30 per cent of the global effort to stabilise atmospheric greenhouse gas concentrations over the next decade," he adds.

While no formal REDD-plus mechanism was adopted at the conference due to the larger failure to reach binding agreements on how much money rich nations would contribute, enough progress was made to allow the private sector to begin implementing sub-national demonstration activities and even scaling them up to the national level. The talks also produced $3.5bn of short-term financial commitments to fund the effort from Norway, Japan, the US, the UK, France and Australia.

Progress on REDD was due in large part to a very effective alliance of private sector, NGOs, scientists and governments, and this did not go unnoticed by other constituencies at the conference. Professor Diana Liverman, visiting professor of environmental policy and development at Oxford University and former director of the Environmental Change Institute, says that after seeing the success of the forest lobby, "the really powerful agricultural interests and countries came together I think for the first time to think very seriously about the role of agriculture and food systems both in adaptation and mitigation".

There was no shortage of business leaders agitating for business to do its part, whether a political agreement was reached or not. Sir Richard Branson, chief executive of Virgin Group, set the bar high, stating: "If governments do not come to a resolution then I think it's up to businesses to actually force through resolutions to this issue." He called on industries such as shipping and aviation to set targets for themselves in reducing the amount of carbon they release into the atmosphere, and then find imaginative ways to achieve those targets, much as cities need to find imaginative ways to engage the private sector to achieve their targets.

The same panel also highlighted the need for private funding for municipal-level climate change mitigation projects, and found strong support from a group of leading mayors from around the world, who called for the greater use of public-private partnerships at the municipal level to fund sustainability projects.

Los Angeles mayor Antonio Villaraigosa outlined several groundbreaking partnership initiatives, including the world's largest LED street-lighting programme to improve energy efficiency as well as a Clean Truck Program at the LA seaport, where efforts to replace about 5,100 old diesel trucks have already reduced those emissions by 70 per cent. California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, who has become one of America's leading advocates of public-private partnerships in infrastructure after close encounters with a spiraling state budget, was similarly keen to promote municipally based private sector projects, as well as grassroots level efforts to combat climate change at the summit.