Kiwi takes climate hotseat for Deloitte

Nick Main says a strong stance on climate change can help New Zealand gain competitive advantage and create wealth. Photo / Brett Phibbs

The irony of criss-crossing the world in carbon-emitting aircraft as he advises clients on how to move to a low-carbon economy is not lost on Nick Main.

The local chairman of Deloitte has been picked for a new role in London heading the firm's climate change and sustainability services.

The opportunity is a privilege, he says, and while the need to spend at least half the year travelling may mean his personal carbon footprint is not too flash he hopes to be making a bigger difference.

Corporates are facing a rapidly changing landscape and need their advisers to help them manage it, Main says.

New legislation such as the United States' Waxman-Markey Bill - which will require a 17 per cent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions from 2005 levels by 2020 - will place serious reporting requirements on organisations.

"People are now being asked to make fairly rapid transitions to a different way of thinking about an element of their business. We need to do a much more effective job about sharing the knowledge we have around the world, and getting a consistency as well."

Main says the work at the coalface will still be done in-country and his role will be more subtle - leading the thinking, developing relationships with non-government organisations, working on standards and raising Deloitte's profile.

Main has been working in the area in New Zealand but says the London job will be on a much bigger scale.

"The nature of the work is not different for me but the way in which you can impact is significantly different."

The issue for clients in New Zealand of late has been the proposed emissions trading scheme (ETS). Main has firm views about how New Zealand's approach is perceived internationally.

We did have a reputation as a leader on climate change but the decision to "pause and think" on an ETS is seen as something of a joke, he says.

"That stuff gets round the world and it affects your profile and I think we're thought of now as having stepped back.

"Hopefully we'll understand what we need to do, and what the challenges are so that when we go up to Copenhagen [in December, for the negotiations on a climate treaty to follow the Kyoto Protocol] we can reinstate ourselves in a way."

Main believes that, at the moment, we are coming from a traditional old-economy perspective - talking about the cost of reducing emissions and defending the status quo as we once defended tariffs.

"You can do that for a certain period of time but eventually, the world is not going to reinvent itself for New Zealand."

There are also competitive advantages to addressing climate change and New Zealand could leverage its efforts much more than it is. "The Waxman-Markey Bill envisages a world divided into those who care and who are doing the right thing, and those who aren't.

"And if you're on the outside there'll be adjustments on the border. You want to be inside this particular tent because the big players are going to be there."

New Zealand needs to carefully protect its "100 per cent Pure" image and trustworthiness as a food producer. "If you fall over, you end up not back at zero, you end up at about minus 20 ... there's a path down which we can go which is competitively advantageous for us, which can create wealth for the country."

NICK MAIN

Deloitte's new global managing partner for climate change and sustainability services based in London.
Age: 57
Born: United Kingdom, has lived in New Zealand for 30 years.
Career: A partner in Deloitte New Zealand since 1985; appointed CEO in 2000; chairman since 2005.