By Hannah Miller and Ricardo Geromel
June 26, 2012
On the day before the Rio+20 talks started, international executives sat in a conference hall, passed a microphone around like a guitar at a campfire, and sang an unlikely new song.
“Businesses like regulation,” said Adriana Machado, CEO of General Electric Brazil.
“Businesses like regulation,” said Adriana Machado, CEO of General Electric Brazil, speaking at the World Business Council for Sustainable Business’ daylong event. Machado cited government support for Brazil’s nascent wind industry as critical to its growth.
“We don’t like bureaucracy… but regulation is necessary to show companies who want to get better on how to get there,” she said. Many on the panel agreed.
As surprising as it may sound, Machado and her peers who are asking for more regulation are not part of a minority, at least when it comes to the green economy. On the eve of the Rio Plus 20 talks, PricewaterhouseCoopers released a survey of 141 CEOs that found not only high levels of concern about ecological factors in business, but a hope that the U.N. would push them for action.
