As a one-time factory manager, Nigel Topping isn’t someone to mince his words. For business owners tiptoeing around climate change, he has a simple two-word message: “Wake up!”
He doesn’t labour the science. Seven of the planet’s warmest years have occurred since 2014. If that’s not enough to persuade company leaders, then no amount of peer-reviewed research will either.
Instead, the United Nations’ high-level champion for climate action goes straight for the jugular: “If you think you can be a late follower, then you've decided to give up market share and be a slow loser.”
Like it or not, the transition to a low-carbon economy is “inevitable”, he argues. Social expectations, regulatory demands, even investment trends all point to the inexorability of a low-carbon transition.
Smart companies, moreover, are already on the case. Just look at Tesla. A decade ago, the idea of an electric-only carmaker seemed bizarre. Now every other major auto-manufacturer is desperately playing catch-up.
“We have to avoid any framing that says, ‘Oh, maybe we should do a green thing on Friday afternoon’. This has to be front and centre of business strategy,” Topping insists.