SpotLight: Hot topic getting hotter

A processing plant billows smoke from chimneys at sunrise in the port city of Newcastle, Australia. Australia says it is partly responsible for creating a six-nation pact to combat global warming, which grew from a brainstorming meeting of 20 countries on climate change in Britain in 2005.

LAST year, the reaction was “Huh? What’s that?” But this year, it’s among the biggest worries for consumers around the world.
Global warming is fast climbing the ladder of consumer concerns — even in Malaysia, one of three countries rated least aware about the hot topic last year.About 11 per cent of Malaysian consumers, responding to a global online consumer opinion survey, said they hadn’t heard of global warming.This put Malaysia two notches above the United States, which sat at the bottom of the table in the AC Nielsen survey carried out in October 2006.At the time, only nine per cent of Malaysian consumers responding to the survey listed global warming as their biggest or second biggest concern for the following six months.
But amid worries about expanding waistlines, shrinking wallets and the Merdeka moment, something changed.This April’s survey showed that the volatile climate found its way to the top of concerns for 14 per cent of Malaysian respondents.They listed it as their biggest or second biggest concern in the ensuing six months and it placed Malaysia 28th among 47 countries polled in the twice-yearly survey (see graphics).Generally, the jump in awareness and concern reflects the trend worldwide. Global warming, as a major concern, has more than doubled across the world from seven per cent in October 2006 to 16 per cent in the April 2007 survey, with some countries showing three to four-fold increases.It now ranks as the fourth major concern for global consumers behind economy, health, and job security, a survey showed.Malaysia’s dismal showing in last year’s survey was raised at the recent national conference on Corporate Social Responsibility and the Business of Climate Change to illustrate how much effort needed to be put into raising awareness.Over two days, speakers from business and industry listed efforts they had taken to address environmental issues, including climate change, during the conference by the Asian Strategy and Leadership Institute.They also heard from speakers like John Zinkin, deputy chairman of the Institute of Corporate Social Responsibility Malaysia who said that being a responsible corporate citizen didn’t mean having to lose money or make less of it.It meant running the business responsibly and keeping in mind a triple bottom-line — people, planet and profits, he said.He added this would only work if there was strong leadership in a corporation - if it employed a top-down approach.But when another speaker later asked delegates, how many among them were chief operating officers, managers or heads of departments, only three in the crowd raised their hands.