Introductory remarks by Deal Day's chair in London
Sandrine Dixson-Decleve, The Prince of Wales's EU Corporate Leaders Group on Climate Change and University of Cambridge's Programme for Sustainability Leadership in Brussels:
This is the first of what we hope will be several deal days, with others possibly following in March, June, September.
We'll be discussing potential deals that can be done business to business (b2b), or business to the public sector or to the consumer -- for today, we're more focused on the business side.

Before trying to define what a deal actually means, lets start with introductions.
I work for the Cambridge Programme for Sustainability Leadership renowned for its ground-breaking international leadership seminars on sustainability and strategy, such as The Prince of Wales’s Business & Sustainability Programme (BSP) and the Climate Leadership Programme.  We also manage sustainability initiatives well known within the business community such as The Prince of Wales’s Corporate Leaders Group on Climate Change, the ClimateWise Insurance Initiative and the P8 Pensions Initiative.
Let's have everyone introduce themselves.

Peter Boyd, chief operating officer of Carbon War Room:
The Carbon War Room was launched by Richard Branson, and cuts the carbon space into 25 sectors. We feel a sector approach is needed with climate change. One of our deals is already up on the [Hub] site, for shipping.
Entrepreneurs need to get out there to get capital.
The reason the world hasn't moved to reduce emissions is that there's a narrative out there that it'd cost too much. I think this is the opportunity. It is the most gigantic business opportunity, which needs building up on a mass scale. We know we have the technology, but two things are missing: the financial incentives and understanding what is the role of business community to make that happen. The government needs to hear from business leaders.

Sandrine:
I fully agree. Being based in Brussels, I can see those leaders need more education. Lord Stern, Professor Edenhofer and the Presidents of the European Commission, Parliament, Council will be meeting on the 9th of February to talk about this with His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales and prominent CEOs from companies belonging to The Prince of Wales’s’ EU Corporate Leaders Group on Climate Change. This is the first time such a high-profile meeting is happening on carbon prosperity and decarbonising the economy.

Jasper Sky, researcher in climate policy and conservation finance, School of Geography and Environment, University of Oxford:
The Brussels Summit could be a Climate Deal in and of itself. The single most important thing right now is to bring government leaders together to collectively sign agreements.

Mark Grundy, director of communications, Carbon War Room:
I'm interested in the narrative/communications element on both sides of the Atlantic. I'm always curious about why this is not moving forward.
Looking at what's going on in the corporate side of this in the US, which was also in Copenhagen,  you see there are market-based mechanisms being used by entrepreneurs in the US, who really don't really care about environment.

Sandrine:
Why is it then that we need policy? It's fascinating how businesses are turning it on its head -- forget the road map. Some non progressive business leaders are pointing to China and the US and saying, "We no longer need to be given targets to stimulate investment."

Christian Teriete, communications director, Global Campaign for Climate Action (GCCA):
When GCCA (which is most known for Tck, Tck, Tck) started as an alliance of NGOs in 09 we had one focus, an alliance to mobilize for that deal in Copenhagen, Didn't get that, but we're trying to do other deals by pushing a narrative, reframe narrative, that's more engaging and then reaching out to bigger audiences. The so-called tree huggers are not enough to change policy. We need a Zeitgeist campaign -- challenging the journalist, Hollywood on how they make climate change an issue.
We're the aggregators -- we want that if a person not part of it they feel they are the odds one out, not the other way around.

Manish Joshi, Global Campaign for Climate Action (GCCA):
We're a broad-based group, with education campaigns to get buy in, to talk to bigger audiences. We saw  in Copenhagen that the mechanism is there, but next few years we will be pushing at national level, so that businesses can create new markets and keep pressure on government leaders.

Sandrine:
That is a good point -- whether there will be a global deal, The key now is to look at other mechanisms, which maybe might replace the framework deal (which we hope not) but at least have something in place until there is a framework. This brings up another element to deals. Before it was mum is the word on the impossibility of a framework deal, now business leaders are saying we still need some clarity, but until we do, let's get other deals done.

Greg Lowe, sustainability coordinator, AON :
AON is the world's oldest insurance broker based in 120 countries, with 56,000 employees. Part of my role is looking at business opportunities. I'm interested in the dichotomy in the US.

Sandrine:
The objectives of today are to showcase projects; plan for future days (is this day useful, which we will assess at the end of the day); determine who can best reach in each sector; identify other deal-making platforms -- who are the major stakeholders to make sure we get more deals; can these deals be replicated?; where are there the right opportunities for new deals?