Getting a jump on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s release this week of the first installment of the Fifth Assessment Report, the new Global Commission on the Economy and Climate, had its kickoff yesterday morning. This blue ribbon group is being led by Felipe Calderón, until last year the President of Mexico. He is well versed in the issue, as he also, among other things, led the climate negotiations in Cancún in 2010. The director of the project is Jeremy Oppenheim, on leave from McKinsey where for the past five years he has run their Sustainability and Resource Productivity Practice. These are two highly seasoned and smart guys. The focus of the commission’s work in the first year will be researching and production of a report giving “comprehensive evidence on whether and how climate policy can be made compatible with strong economic performance.”
