The sooner we have a fully functional liquid carbon market, the sooner we can create hedging and risk management products and make them available to industry to reduce the impact of operating in a carbon constrained world.

While it's better than nothing, the Federal Government's Green paper on carbon trading recently released by Minister Penny Wong, rates about a five out of ten.

All the essential elements of an effective carbon market are there, but there is one word that has me worried: "however". Just about every time the report discusses best practice, or recommends the sorts of approaches identified by the Garnaut Review to reduce greenhouse emissions, it's followed up with the word however, and some excuse as to why they're not going to implement best practice.

The challenge I see is that all these "howevers" are potential market distortions which are going to get in the way of the "Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme" actually delivering any emissions reduction, let alone delivering it at the lowest cost (which is ultimately the point of any trading scheme).

Responsible business practices can in many ways build trust and social capital, contributing to broad-based development and sustainable markets. 

As many of you know, I have been a strong and passionate advocate of the work of the United Nations, as it has applied to matters relating to governance, intellectual property and the protection of rights, particularly for small business. More recently I have taken the decision to align my business interests with those of the United Nations through the signing of the United Nations Global Compact. I am pleased to inform SansGov partners and clients that this morning I signed the final remaining letter of intent from the UN Secretary General in order for SansGov to become a full member of the Compact. You may wonder what the Compact is all about and perhaps, more importantly, what it means to you as a client or as a partner.

The Global Compact is a framework for businesses that are committed to aligning their operations and strategies with ten universally accepted principles in the areas of human rights, labour, the environment and anti-corruption. As the world's largest, global corporate citizenship initiative, the Global Compact is first and foremost concerned with exhibiting and building the social legitimacy of business and markets.

Business, trade and investment are essential pillars for prosperity and peace. But in many areas, business is too often linked with serious dilemmas - for example, exploitative practices, corruption, income equality, and barriers that discourage innovation and entrepreneurship. Responsible business practices can in many ways build trust and social capital, contributing to broad-based development and sustainable markets.