With the Copenhagen climate talks just a month away, we put our heads together with some of our fellow businesses in the SouthWest to discuss what we’d like our Prime Minister to achieve there. The result is this letter, which we’ll be sending to Gordon Brown next week.

Prime Minister Gordon Brown

10 Downing Street

London

Dear Prime Minister

We are a coalition of the most successful businesses in the South West.

As our region has been identified by your government as a regional centre for low-carbon businesses it is very important to us that a strong agreement is reached at the UN Climate Summit in Copenhagen in December.

We are delighted that you have said you will attend the talks in person – we hope you will successfully persuade President Obama and the leaders of the other developed nations to attend as well. Without the right decision-makers in the room it will not be possible to achieve an effective agreement.

• We want to see a deal which will commit the UK and other developed nations to tough and binding CO2 emissions targets.
• We want developed countries to commit public funds to help developing countries adapt to climate change without threatening their own economic growth.

But above all, we want an agreement. Failure is not an option.

As businesses, we are prepared to support the agreement by making the changes we need – not only  through our own operations but also through our influence on our customers and suppliers – to make a global agreement work at a local level. 

Please don’t let us down.