Transcript: Haris Hromic

Haris Hromic works for Lehman Brothers Institutional Client Group, Global Fixed Income Sales in NY, covering range of fixed income and alternative investments platforms. Prior, Hromic served at the NYC Office of Management and Budget under Mayor Bloomberg administration with oversight responsibilities for US$1.6bn capital program.

He served as Business Consultant at the NYC Office of the Comptroller and as a Research Associate at the Research Foundation of the City University of New York on a nation-wide study of executive leadership, municipal resource allocation, and pressure group politics. He is a Fellow of the RSA and a member of the NY Academy of Sciences and The Academy of Political Science. Following his appointment to the Board of Trustees of Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs he now serves with Council's Development Committee where he helps advance Council's global development strategy.

He holds MA in Political Science from New York University specializing in International Political Economy, MPA in Public Management and Policy Evaluation and Analysis from Baruch College Graduate School of Public Affairs, and a B.B.A in International Marketing from Zicklin School of Business. He has published works in the field of international relations, genocide and social reconstruction, and gender leadership politics.

Transcript of Haris Hromic's speech at On the Green Economy, 14 May 2008

"The agenda of this evening's panel is to examine the recent developments and ways in which civil society pressures have affected climate change public policies. We will examine ways in which business is responding and positioning itself to take economic advantage of newly created market conditions that are driving private investment in low-carbon economy.

To frame the debate, let’s consider that the problem of finding an effective policy tool to combat climate change is still very much alive.

According to a new analysis by the Energy Information Administration, the proposed Lieberman-Warner Bill, designed to cap greenhouse gas emissions, would increase the cost of electricity and natural gas, as generating companies turn away from dirty coal. This is leading market participants to consider that new regulation would spark more reliance on nuclear power and renewable energy, as well as drive the use of new carbon capture and sequestration technology at fossil-fuel power plants.

While uncertain for 2008, the Bill will certainly set the stage for 2009 policy course.

Now weight all of that added cost to industry and consumers in US markets and back that against 1% year over year rise in carbon emissions in EU under a well developed cap and trade scheme.

Ask yourself, are we heading in the right direction?

While it seems apparent that we have reached catharsis in terms of public awareness of the magnitude of the danger that carbon emissions and global warming present for the planet, it is not apparent to me that we are anywhere near the required level of public policy determination and resource commitment needed to effectively deal with the problem.

Thus, this evening's panel is uniquely positioned to assess how far reaching, realistic and effective are the pressures of civil society on public policy mandates.

Consequently, we will examine what are the realized and expected effects of private investments that have been put in place in anticipation of such policy and market conditions.


The Four pillars of tonight’s panel are:
1) Green Activism, 2) Changing Consumer Behavior, 3) Role of Private Investments, 4) Getting a Global Grip on the Problem.

1) Green Activism
It is clear that well endowed and sophisticated green activism continues to influence legislation that will ultimately provide trajectory for a more predictable and stable low-carbon economy. Insight to this aspect will be offered by Pincas Javetz, the Director of the sustainable development knowledge website, sustainabilitank.org. He will provide a global overview or major trends and the future of green activism.

2) Changing Consumer Behaviour
We will look to see how applying these ideas on the local and regional level are key to sustained behavioural change in consumption patterns. Jonas Rabinovitch, a Brazilian urban environmental planner and UN interregional adviser will discuss national and local governance for green cities and effects they have on local population. Among his many accomplishments Jonas was an adviser to the Mayor of Curitiba, Brazil, an Award Winning City for Green Urban Design.

3) Role of Private Investments
As mentioned earlier, the market driven carbon emissions cap and trade scheme well underway in Europe is now the subject of considerable debate in the US, Canada and Australia. A similar trading scheme to the one in the EU is now slowly making its presence on the regional level in North America and is expected to be introduced in Canada and Australia in the near term. The global carbon market is projected to reach $92 billion by the end of 2008, according to industry statistics. The average price of carbon is expected to rise steadily. This has direct implications on business and creates opportunities in a number of market and technology sectors such as fossil fuels, nuclear energy, renewable -- whether that is solar, wind, geothermal or other forms of new low-carbon technology. With this in mind, Mark Fulton, Deutsche Bank Asset Management’s Head of Climate Change Investment Strategy, will discuss trends and challenges in investing in climate change driven markets, as well as discuss the likely evolution of the carbon market post 2012.

Finally,
4) Getting a Global Grip on the Problem:
Considering carbon pollution in its pure from as an economic externality for any given geography, it is critical to examine prospects of UN efforts in the context of Bali-to-Copenhagen climate change negotiations for creating a global governance framework tasked with reducing carbon emissions. This is critical given the fact that in 2007 China has surpassed US as the top emitter of CO2. That is double the size of EU emissions and 7 times the emissions of India and Japan by 2010. Answers to the questions of the pace of development, time of deployment, and likely enforcement capability of such global governance structure will be offered by Nikhil Chandavarkar, Chief of Communications and Information Management at the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs and a leader of the UNDESA Climate change knowledge portal.

Thank you!"