Mike Brown: Hard limits flexible strategies

December 2012 – COP17 – the 17th Conference of the Parties for the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change – proved a catalyst for South African business to engage more deeply with the challenges of climate change. What became clear through my attendance at the event, and my active participation in the South African Corporate Leaders Group on Climate Change, is that the global climate system is not open to negotiation.

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Mike Brown is Chief Executive of Nedbank, one of South Africa’s major banks, which is engaged with much of CISL’s sustainability leadership work in South Africa. Here he describes the personal impact of learning about the ‘2°C limit’; why he feels this ‘hard’ technical and ethical limit may be just what’s needed; and how our creativity and innovation across business and government must match the very inflexibility of this goal.