Did Durban weather scare SA companies away from WCS 2011? (2011-12-06)
February 17,
2015 3650 3650 
Having just returned from the World Climate Summit 2011 held in Durban between 03-04 December 2011 -- where CGF Research Institute (Pty) Ltd was selected as one of the Summit’s industry partners
-- it was clearly evident that many of South Africa’s top businesses and their leaders were not in attendance. One wonders if this was due to the erratic weather during the Summit and COP17, which would be rather ironic.
At the Summit, The Carbon War Room announced the 2011 Best-In-Class Gigaton Award Winners, again noticeably devoid of South African companies. The categories of the Gigaton Award Winners were recognised and applauded for their outstanding business leadership in carbon emissions reduction, high standards of disclosure and the inspiration they have set in the hope that others will follow their example.
There were five Gigaton Award categories, namely; Consumer Discretionary, Consumer Staples, Industrials, Telecommunications and Utilities. Out of the 25 companies from across the world who were nominated for the Gigaton Awards, the following companies won the respective categories: Tesco plc (United Kingdom) won the Consumer Discretionary award, Philips (Netherlands) the Consumer Staples award, Schneider Electric (France) the Industrials award, Swisscom (Switzerland) the Telecommunications award and Centrica (United Kingdom) the Utilities award. The Gigaton Prize was awarded to Suntech, a Chinese solar energy giant and also represented in South Africa, whilst a special Gigaton prize was given to Germany, having been cited as a country that has been the most inspiring example for renewable energy and energy efficiency investments and deployments.
