Immortality by Kevin Bohacz

Immortality is not a bad book, for two evenings of reading it is more than OK. But as many other scifi's I think it ends where it should begin. The merging of man/machine, or upgrade to "human 2.0" is happening now and we need authors to explore the ethical and aesthetic aspects of what is happening.

1. We have close to 2 billion people with overweight,
2. close to a billion people chronically hungry,
3. at the same time as we are killing the planet,
4. we can see the end of the western dominance and
5. the (re-)emergence of other values beside the linear/growth paradigm that has dominated the leading institutions thinking about development.

For each there is a challenge for "transhumanism"
1. Will it only accelerate the need for "more" and individualism (the book and many others highlight the connectivity as a potential force for transformative change)?
2. Is the development helping those in most need of help? The book does not even mention the poor on the planet... and hardly anyone outside the US...
3. How will it help up live more sustainable lives? Here the book highlights current challenges (and actually make them a key part of the plot), but does not talk about actual solutions.
4. China, India and other re-emerging economies will set the agenda in a way that never has been the case though history. It is time for the western civilization to leave room for other cultures, if not we will have "war" in a few decades where the reality and current institutions drift too far apart. Nothing in the book discussed these issues.
5. There is so much focus on the technical development that the ethical aspects are often forgotten. Right when the book end the people of the world face some interesting choices and ethical dilemmas.

Part of me also feel a little uncomfortable with an average book that use the same title as Kundera's masterpiece.

Congratulation Peng Lei: Master of Public Policy

Peng Lei, aka "Bruce" to many of us, has now graduated from Harvard.

Bruce was the first person I recruited in China. He was the leading person in China for the trade and investment work and soon become an influential thinker regarding global policy and business development.

When we, almost 10 years ago, started work with CSR as core business in China, China as an exporter of sustainable goods, transformative innovation as a key part for the 5 year plan, Sino-Indian collaboration, etc, these areas where almost unexplored.

I’m still reminded on a regular basis of the potential to deliver results with small investments in an area before everyone started to work on it. I have seen few people develop the analytical and operational skills so fast as Bruce did. I will never forget the dinner we had in Hong Kong after we arranged the first side-event ever with MOFCOM about sustainable trade during the WTO meeting in 2005.

Look forward to future adventure PL!

The road to green growth, China Daily 3 June 2011

Below is an article about an area I've been spending a lot of time on the last five years...

Here is a link to China Daily.

China, EU need to overcome five communication challenges to build a low-carbon future

China and the European Union (EU) are in many ways the perfect global team to develop low-carbon solutions.

The EU is the only grouping of developed countries where serious discussion about a low/zero carbon society by 2050 is being held. Furthermore, the EU is in urgent need to refurbish much of the infrastructure that was built after World War II and needs new low-carbon solutions to do so.

Among the emerging economies, China is arguably the most important, not only because of its size and economic development, but also because of a long-term vision and innovation-based approach to low-carbon development. The 12th Five-Year Plan (2011-2015) is ambitious and China has two very important roles to play in the global economy.

First, it will be seen as a provider of high quality low-cost low-carbon solutions to the rest of the world. Second, China will be seen as the place where a new urbanization is born, an urbanization that is resource efficient and low-carbon. Such urbanization would not only help China move up the value chain but also drive global low-carbon innovation.

Below are five key communication challenges for low-carbon companies that should be addressed to unleash a joint low-carbon leadership of China and the EU built on their respective strengths.

1. Image of aggressive dragon One of the most difficult communication problems is that many people in the EU have been influenced by the image of China as an "aggressive dragon". This image is a big obstacle as many entrepreneurs and important stakeholders hesitate to contact Chinese companies. So even before there is a communication challenge, the image of the aggressive dragon has resulted in many missed opportunities.
Chinese and EU companies must be more visible together to show the gains that result from collaboration. Media and policymakers in the EU have a significant responsibility as the language and images they use influence the image of Chinese companies in the EU.
 
2. Unbalanced knowledge
The average Chinese businessperson in the EU is knowledgeable about Europe's history, politics, food and literature. But the average European knows almost nothing about China. This is slowly improving, but only recently did most universities in the EU start to include China in the curriculum in a more comprehensive way.
In the case of larger companies from the EU, they often state that they have been in China for decades, or make similar statements, to highlight their Chinese experience. These companies tell the truth, but they forget to tell that it is equally true that 99 percent of the staff in these companies often don't know who even top leaders are, or can name more than four Chinese cities.

Chinese companies must start by treating Western people initially as if they have no knowledge of China. Today, many Western people are just nodding without understanding what the conversion is about, and sometimes that can result in a situation where people from the EU feel that Chinese businesspeople are difficult to understand. Similar things happen the other way around where EU companies must remember that while Chinese companies know many things about the EU, they are often unaware of ethical rules and what is required to become a trusted partner in the EU.

3. Two-hand business card Simple cultural differences - such as food, greetings, gift exchanges and the way to sit during negotiations - are hiding the more significant differences. Today, too many companies spend a lot of resources to learn basic culture behavior, just to ensure short-time business success. Understanding simple cultural differences can help communicate, but much deeper cultural understanding is needed, than that you hand over a business card with two hands in China.
The poor cultural understanding results in simplistic approaches also by Chinese companies. Some Chinese solar companies, for example, hear that they should communicate on environment and think that they only need to communicate that they pollute on the same level or less than Europeans to be environmentally credible. Again, this communication is too simplistic and more is needed.

Companies are expected to also present their positive contribution in the EU. Chinese companies must know and communicate how much CO2 they have helped reduce in the EU in collaboration with EU companies and how many new jobs they have helped create by providing parts of smart low-carbon solutions. They must learn to communicate much more than the technical data, they must explain their positive role in the EU.

4. The guanxi challenge Chinese companies in the EU often don't understand the need for a broader network of supporters. Guanxi, or connection, is as common in the EU as it is in China. It looks a little different. It is less discussed and business people don't refer to their contacts in the same way as Chinese businesspeople do in China. Still, networks are at least as important in the EU as in China.

As low-carbon development is a highly political issue, it is very important for Chinese companies to understand how they can provide policy support to low-carbon solutions. In the EU, Chinese companies should ensure that they are in regular contact with those who work with low-carbon development and that they keep them updated to progress in different kind of collaborations. Here it is also important that Chinese companies understand the important role of non-governmental organizations and engage with them.

5. The vision and passion Chinese low-carbon companies, especially solar companies, play an important symbolic role in the relationship between China and the EU. But Chinese low-carbon companies are often seen as only focusing on making money and selling the cheapest solar panels at any cost. Few in the EU are aware of the fact that some of the Chinese solar companies are led by passionate visionaries for global low-carbon development.

The exhibition in headquarters of companies such as Trina Solar, Suntech and the displays in Baoding, a solar power city in North China's Hebei province, should be brought to the EU so that people understand that the vision of a sustainable future is something that they share with Chinese companies. The CEOs should also ensure to participate in policy dialogues in the EU.
These five challenges will take time to overcome, but we need to start now and within one year leading low-carbon companies from China should have done the following in collaboration with stakeholders in EU:

1. Calculate and report how much CO2 they have helped reduce in the EU in collaboration with EU companies.
2. Calculate and report how many new sustainable jobs they have helped create in the EU in collaboration with EU companies.
3. Present how they support innovation in collaboration with EU companies.
4. Present policy positions where they give suggestions for what kind of collaboration in the EU would help to deliver new, smart low-carbon solutions.
5. Help support and accelerate the low-carbon domestic market in China and invite EU (and other) companies to help in this work.

Low-carbon companies from the EU should do the same in China, and where possible the same teams that do work in EU should also work in China to highlight the synergies.

These initial steps will allow the China-EU collaboration to move to the next level and avoid increased tension and trade conflicts that we will not be able to totally avoid. We will see more exciting collaboration with concrete results that will help deliver the solutions we need and support a collaborative culture.

It is urgent to act now. And we hope better communication is demonstrated at COP17 (the 17th Conference of the Parties of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change) in South Africa later this year.

The author is the director of UN Global Compact's Low-Carbon Leader Project and founder of the initiative, China's Global Media Image, which will launch a website later this summer.

21st Century Clusters for transformative solutions/ LCL: Beyond carbon

This week the phase two of the low-carbon leaders project was presented at the UNGC annual meeting in Copenhagen. It was a great session and from an idea less than a year ago to a fully operational project with significant support for a transformative agenda it is a project with the potential to help set the agenda at Rio+20.

The leaflet describing the project can be found here.

Launch of RiREL in Taiwan

The 0.9 version of RiREL was launched in Taiwan 15th of May.

The parts I worked on are in the PPT that can be found here.

Suzanne Pahlman did the presentation.

Postdoc position for Low Carbon City Development Index (LCCDI)

Thanks to Steen Rasmussen, Professor and Center Director at University of Southern Denmark, someone will be given the historic opportunity to do a postdoc in the area of a low-carbon city development index (LCCDI). This work will focus on the full impact, positive and negative, including the impact beyond the borders of the city through import/export of embedded energy, as well as export of low-carbon solutions that help other parts of the world reduce their emissions.

See below for more information:

Project: Low Carbon City Index (LCCDI) [1]

Cities are realizing the urgency to confront the climate challenge. New ideas and innovations are being developed and implemented by cities everywhere. However, many roadblocks slow down the exchange of promising ideas and innovations among cities.

The Low Carbon City Dynamic Index grew out of an urgency to define a universal science-based measure for the CO₂ balance in cities[2]. An operational and science-based index is highly desirable as a means of tracking the true CO₂ emissions in a given region as well as a base for comparison and benchmarking between different cities. It is envisioned that the LCCDI could define a much-needed international standard.

As cities will increasingly house a greater fraction of the global population cities must also be part of the solution to the CO₂ emission problem. Therefore the LCCDI is divided into five parts where three parts are focused on CO₂ reduction solutions:

The index focus on solutions and will have five parts:

1. Urban profile (land use and actual carbon profile)

2. Urban trajectory (actual carbon history)

3. Investments for the future (high- or low-carbon investments)

4. Actual export of solutions (high- or low-carbon contribution/technology to the world)

5. Policy support/engagement (high- or low-carbon policy promotion)

Note that the CO₂ accounting includes imports and exports. E.g. CO₂ emissions from the production of goods produced elsewhere, but consumed in the city, are accounted for within the city.

The development of the index will follow a three-step plan.

Step 1: Compiling the index on a small group of 3-5 cities including: Sønderborg Denmark, London GB, Baoding China, utilizing (incomplete) database and established stakeholder network/contacts.

Step 2: Preparing a scientific paper on the index, linking up with additional key stakeholders, incl. progressive cities and related scientific and NGO index working groups, as well as graphical presentation material for stakeholder engagement.

Step 3: Institutionalization of the index (e.g. World Bank, Nordic Countries, WWF).

Budget:

Initiative for Science, Society and Policy could cover ~50% of a 1-year postdoc (or 100% for ~half a year postdoc) with a starting date ASAP. The academic task of the postdoc is to complete the practical implementation of the LCCI as outlined above through steps 1 and 2.

---

[1] Point of contact: Steen Rasmussen, Professor & Center Director, Fundamental Living Technology, SDU, http://www.sdu.dk/flint & Science Board, Initiative for Science, Society and Policy (ISSP), http://www.science-society-policy.org. The project will also be part of the NORTH STAR network, headed by Professor Mike Goodsite, see http://www.nord-star.info. Mike is also Science Board member at ISSP.

[2] LCCI originates in the ‘Copenhagen Declaration’, which was formulated in mid-2008 by stakeholders committed to helping cities improve their carbon performance. For a complete list of participants, see: John Bang (World Wildlife Foundation, Denmark) and Peter Rathje (ProjectZero, Denmark) “Low Carbon City Index, Concept Note”, Draft June 4, 2009, which has an implementation plan. The LCCI concept was further elaborated by Diana Mangalagiu (Reims Business School, France) and Britta Boyd (University of Southern Denmark), “Development of a Low Carbon City Index: the Issue of Accounting for Import/Export Emissions”, 2009 International Energy Workshop, Venice, Italy June 17th - 19th, 2009. The current form of the Index is mainly taken from Dennis Pamlin et al., (http://www.pamlin.net and http://lowcarbondeelopmentindex.net) where further inclusion of CO₂ policies and solutions are introduced into the LCCI and is now called Low Carbon City Dynamics Index (LCCDI).

RiREL presenation scheduled for Sunday May 15 in Taiwan at ASCC 2011

Thanks to Kai-Tai, world leading robot expert, there will be a presentation and official launch of Robot Innovation for Resource Efficiency and Low-carbon development (RiREL) at the 8th Asian Control Conference, ASCC 2011. Please find the agenda for the event here.

Article in China Daily: BASIC, BRICS and a transformative solutions agenda for climate change

These are very interesting times. 2001, after the WTO meeting in Seattle, I developed a BRICS strategy for WWF. (including South Africa as the "S", something that confused a lot of people at that time).

Tom Crompton, who today works as Change Strategist at WWF-UK, and I worked hard and managed to get resources and a team together that over a number of years worked hard to establish a solution perspective and support for the emerging BRICS.

Among other things we published reports about the BRICS and the role of leading companies that started with the report "Chinese companies in the 21st Century", but more than anything else we tried to build bridges and introduce a "transformative change paradigm" to support a move beyond incremental improvements.

As the "BRICS" now is established as a group, that exists and play a key role to play in relation to all global challenges, it would be interesting to study the emergence of this group and the network that exist today to support a truly sustainable development.

Just a reflection after I saw the photo in China Daily from the BRICS meeting in Sanya, Hainan province. It reminded me of the "logo" we used for the project (see the reports).

Below is the article in China Daily, click the link to read it in China Daily :
++++++++++++++++++++++++
The countries vowed to support the Durban climate change conference in South Africa this December and another two global conferences on sustainable development and biodiversity to be held in Brazil and India in 2012.

Russia expressed its support at two previous summits, though it holds a different line on climate change than the BASIC countries.

Partly to capitalize on the consensus, top climate envoys of BASIC countries will meet next month to push forward a nearly "deadlocked" global climate change negotiation.

A senior Chinese climate diplomat from the National Development and Reform Commission said the meeting will be held in Durban, South Africa, in May before the UN holds its mid-year negotiations in Bonn, Germany, in mid-June.

"The bloc has already formed a coordination mechanism to meet prior to important global negotiations and conferences on climate change," said the diplomat, who declined to be named.

Dennis Pamlin, director of the Low Carbon Leaders Project, said the BASIC bloc has set an excellent example of a "united line" to push forward global climate negotiations, but it needs to expand to an even more open platform to engage other developing countries.

Pamlin said the leaders at the Sanya summit have not only expressed a desire to put more pressure on developed countries to abide by their binding responsibilities of greenhouse gas reduction, but also offered more ideas to cut carbon density in developing economies.

The ministers of BASIC countries will hold their seventh meeting in South Africa in May. It is expected that one or two meetings of the ministers will be organized before the global Durban climate change conference.

Pamlin said as the global negotiations now move away from the old Kyoto discussions to a discussion about the need to create an almost carbon-free world economy in less than 40 years, there is a need to focus on the countries that will change the most during this time.

"So the BASIC bloc should not be seen as a fixed structure as other countries, such as Mexico, Indonesia and South Korea, Nigeria and Egypt are all likely to play a very important role as we move towards 2050," said Pamlin.

However, the four countries have been faced with an "interesting challenge" to include Russia in the group as Russia has not played a very constructive role in the climate negotiations and has focused more on securing its role as a fossil fuel exporter.

"An innovation-promotion working group would be a good way for BASIC to include countries like Russia," Pamlin has suggested.

He suggested that the BASIC bloc should strengthen links to other G77 countries, especially the most vulnerable and poor, less developing countries.

Meanwhile, the BASIC bloc should invite companies from around the world to form an alliance and help develop a policy framework that can create jobs, improve innovation, reduce poverty, ensure food security and reduce greenhouse gas emissions, he said.

"Today too much focus is on the big polluters and how they can reduce their emissions on the margin. Now is the time to support the next generation of companies that can provide sustainable solutions for everyone on the planet, not just the rich," Pamlin said.

Guardian Blog: Mobile applications: a window of opportunity

Below is a blog about transformative applications I wrote for the Guardian Sustainable Business blog
++++++++++++++++
This week Transformative-Applications.net was launched. It provides a platform for the presentation each quarter of 10 transformative applications that address some of the most pressing challenges in our society, and five initiatives that support their development and uptake.

We are facing a number of global challenges, such as an increase in CO2 emissions, urban poverty, ageing, growing income gaps and the accelerating depletion of natural resources. As these converge we will face unprecedented pressure and the need for rapid change. Mobile IT applications, now among the most powerful tools available, can help to deliver solutions.

Mobile apps enable people to connect to networks, get access to real-time data, understand complex situations through visualisation, and obtain direct feedback. This represents a historic opportunity to deliver solutions to our challenges that are fundamentally different from those we have today. Connected citizens who understand the impact of their actions, and see through propaganda and PR, could become global citizens with wider ethical boundaries and longer time horizons.

The transformative potential of apps includes increasing transparency and the ability to create new networks. These will allow us to do many things, such as:

See the whole value chain of a product
Apps can help us realise that there is a "story chain" behind products and that our choices are not between different labels, but between the different life stories involved in producing goods. Everyone will be able to see the consequences of their choices, and when the history behind products becomes visible it will be possible to connect directly with the people who produce the things we buy.

Support global citizens working together
Apps can help us create new trans-border networks to influence policy makers and business.

See into the future
We can make choices based not only on what companies and policy makers have done, but what they are planning to do. Apps can help us get real-time information about the investment plans of a company and information about their lobbying. We will be able to see different futures illustrated on a mobile screen and make choices based on these.

These are not future dreams, but possibilities that are already in use in applications today.

However, these apps are currently few in number and hard to find, as they are not developed in a vacuum and there is a lack of supporting initiatives. Without this support, mobile technology will only accelerate the current unsustainable trends. There is no middle ground here and we need to focus on the stakeholders who will influence the direction of the development, including:

• The developers of operating systems such as Apple, Google, RIM, HP and Microsoft. They control the markets and can promote transformative apps in the future.
• Operators such as Verizon, AT&T, China Mobile, Vodafone and Telenor. They influence the use of smartphones and can provide information to users about the possibilities.
• ICT companies, especially manufacturers of mobile devices such as Nokia, HTC, Samsung, Sony Ericsson, Apple, Motorola and HP, who can encourage the use of and even pre-install transformative apps.
• Governments, as they decide how to engage with citizens and what they require of the stakeholders on the market.
• All companies that interact with consumers, in fields including retail, energy, health, design and marketing, which can provide apps that allow users to be part of the solution.

Today, most of the above stakeholders are not doing much to support transformative applications, but some have seen it as a way to support the shifts needed in society, and they need support from new clusters and citizens who understand that "ethical consumption" is not enough. Political action is needed and a new generation of mobile applications can help deliver it.

Finally, and most importantly, the world of mobile apps development is still in its infancy and anyone, any organisation, any company, any network, that dares to think beyond the incremental, and about what is really needed, can make valuable contributions. If we act now we can create the underlying infrastructure and policy framework to support the development of many transformative applications.

New webpage "Transformative Applications" lists top-ten apps that can make the world a better place

New website lists top-ten apps that can make the world a better place

Visit www.transformative-applications.net and get a glimpse of a better future

2011-04-04

Today Transformative-Applications.net is launched. The page presents ten transformative applications that address some of the most pressing challenges in our society, and five initiatives that support the development and uptake of such applications.

- Today we are facing a number of converging trends and global challenges such as CO2 increase, urban poverty, aging, geopolitical shifts, accelerated natural resource depletion, etc. There is a need for one of the most important tools today, mobile applications, to help deliver solutions to address these challenges, said Dennis Pamlin, who is coordinating the initiative.

- I’ve been working with ICT solutions that can help make the world a better place for ten years now. I know that some of the most creative people on the planet are engaged in app-development. This initiative celebrates those who make important contributions with the help of applications and aims to inspire others to use their skills and passion to create apps that make a difference, Pamlin continued.

- This initiative also hopes to inform groups working to address important global challenges on how they can make use of mobile applications in their work, Pamlin added.

The potential role of mobile applications when it comes to help create a better planet can hardly be overestimated. Many of our current challenges can be turned into opportunities with new approaches where mobile devices and connectivity play a key role.

However, today these transformative applications are difficult to find. A study done during the preparation for this webpage indicated that 98.5% of the apps covered by media, and promoted by key stakeholders, were “fun/music/gaming”, “general information”, or “administrative” apps that did nothing in particular to make the world a better place.

- There is nothing wrong with these kinds of apps, but their dominance makes it difficult to identify those that can help solve the major challenges of today. We don’t expect everyone to always highlight transformative applications, but they need to be acknowledged much more than they are today, Pamlin ended.

For more information and the list of transformative applications please visit: www.transformative-applications.net Or contact Dennis Pamlin: dennis@transformative-applications.net