Hon Maite Nkoana‐Mashabane, Minister for International Relations and Cooperation, South Africa and Chair of COP2011 addressing the Climate Change Session at CBF 2011, other pannalists (L-R) Hon Hasan Mahmud MP, Minister of State, Ministry of Environment and Forest, Bangaldesh, Lord David Howell, Minister of State Foreign and Commonwealth Office, United Kingdom, Hon Greg Combet AM MP, Minister for Climate Change and Energy Efficiency, Australia

The delivery of critical, new low‐carbon technologies by 2020 is often far beyond the financial and technical capacity of individual countries or businesses, and requires large‐scale cooperation in the demonstration of key technologies. A major shift in national strategic innovation priorities is needed to make international collaboration on R&D activities work at the scale and pace needed. New forms of public‐private partnerships need to be defined where governments, R&D institutions, suppliers and potential technology users work together to organize, fund, screen, develop and demonstrate selected technologies in a shorter time frame.

The CBC’s policy paper is part of the Commonwealth Business Council’s (CBC) initiative to address climate change. The private sector has a vital role to play in the development of strategy and action to address this issue. CBC has also made recommendations to Commonwealth Finance Ministers at their meeting in Georgetown, Guyana in October 2007. At Lake Victoria in Uganda in 2007, Commonwealth Heads of Government concluded that climate change presented a ‘direct threat to the very survival of some Commonwealth countries’, and agreed an action plan to be pursued by its members.