Press Release: EU businesses lead move to a low carbon economy – Conclusions of the High Level Group on Competitiveness, Energy and Environment

Without the engagement of business there is no solution for building a global low carbon economy. This is the overarching message of the High Level Group on Competitiveness, Energy and Environment, which after two years ended its work earlier this week with the conference 'Towards a global low carbon economy'. The Group is a blue print for how European policy issues can be designed in an integrated manner, in this case, in the area of competitiveness, energy and environment. This has been done through bringing key stakeholders together, before the Commission tables its proposals. It has therefore contributed to increased transparency of the policy making process, better regulation and paved the way for more robust policies by the Commission. In addition to highlighting some of the successes of the Group's work the conference conveyed a series of messages ahead of the Conference of the Parties of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change in Bali in December 2007. The Bali meeting needs to deliver a road map that engages businesses through a new platform to reach an international agreement by 2009. This agreement should enable international action to stabilise the global temperature increase at around 2°C within this century.