Richard Branson's Carbon War Room

I remember reading in The Scotsman (or was it The Guardian?) an editorial that Scotland could benefit a lot from a war economy. While it is true that as part of the United Kingdom Scotland is very much involved in wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, the article's author rather was talking about the enormous benefit Scotland could reap by literally declaring war on climate change. Very discreetly, this has been going on for a few years: Scottish universities are at the forefront of climate change research, and many startups in what has been nicknamed the Silicon Glen - Scotland's equivalent to Silicon Valley - are developing new and promising technologies to help fight climate change. They're not quite there yet, but they're on their way. A fantastic example to many other regions.

But I digress.

I remember liking that article enormously, since it gave a focus to the climate change efforts that has been lacking in other media. Yes, we should be at war against climate change, and yes, a war economy would benefit us all in that sense. But efforts are absolutely non-coordinated, and lacking a general direction.

I've come to realize that Richard Branson probably read the same article I did, but him being a gentleman of slightly better means and a few more resources than myself, he went ahead and co-founded a very interesting outfit.

So, there is an apparent lack of focus in general when it comes to the fight against climate change. Sure, you have a bunch of brilliant people working at a lab in, say, Massachusetts, a team of scientists in Brazil, a couple of Australian entrepreneurs, plus a team of Indonesian activists. All of them are working towards the same goal, but their efforts are uncoordinated and, what is worse in our free market economy, unsustainable.

Enter the Carbon War Room.

True to his nature as an entrepreneur, Branson and a team of businessmen, philanthropists and scientists have put together this entity (called a philanthropic initiative, as well as a corporate think-tank) that, underneath its wargames exterior, is in reality a very interesting exchange for entrepreneurs and individuals wanting to work in the war against climate change. Some might say it doesn't look very serious, or that it subtracts from actual grassroots environmentalist, but as I see it, this is only going to be a forum for those involved to learn what is going on in other places, and also perhaps as an idea garden.

It would be absolutely unfair to give full credit for this initiative to Richard Branson. It was current CEO Jigar Shah, founder of SunEdison, who had the idea. Branson brought in financial backing and his well-known marketing abilities (already at work, using the Winter Olympics as a stage), but it can safely be said that it is Shah who is the man behind the curtain.

Whether the Carbon War Room will be able to deliver its goal as a philanthropic initiative aiming to bring strategic focus to the war on climate change remains to be seen. They already appear to be in the right track, and I for one will be cheering for them all the way.