On 13 January 2012 in Port Melbourne, AUSTRALIA, climate change project fund-raising and finance procurement expert Ken Murray shared with Suite101 views on his major South East Asian projects, and how he saw the future. Murray explained why many worthy projects could not proceed without a bridge between the financial houses and a relevant NGO - inferring the classic relationship between business and statute.
Ken Murray
As a graduate of the Crawford School of Economics & Government at the Australian National University in Canberra, Ken Murray focused on international climate change policy through analyzing the existing approaches, as well as the main proposed international policy and institutional options for mitigating and adapting to climate change. ANU is well-regarded as crucial to the Australian inter-governmental policy process.
Also armed with a Monash University Masters Degree in International Development & Environmental Analysis since 2009, he developed an interdisciplinary understanding of the processes of globalization and environmental change, incorporating analytical problem-solving frameworks for international development fieldwork implementation.
At interview at his office in Port Melbourne, Suite101 posed the following questions to Ken Murray about his future project directions, and his answers appear as below.
The Bridge Between Commercial Interests and NGO’s
Suite101: What is your overall preferred role direction strategy, combining one that would suit both your academic and practical knowledge, your combined experiences and skillsets, plus also enable you also to engage most successfully in a contributing role for the employer, recipients and the environment?
Murray: “With an affinity with Asian cultures and its peoples, combined with a desire to contribute in a commercially responsible manner to the betterment of peoples livelihoods and a more ecologically sustainable future for the planet, my preference would be to obtain a role that provided a ‘bridge’ between the commercial interests (investors / financiers) and NGO’s working in situ on carbon / forest related projects across Asia or other world regions, to contribute in a direct fundraising role, or finance procurement negotiations for carbon related environmental projects. With a sales, marketing and Project Management background I could also fit into carbon related project development role.”
A Career Commitment in Climate Change
Suite101: What is the genesis of this idea of working as a "bridge"? How does the bridge contribute to people's survival and prosperity? What are the philosophical underpinnings of your career?
Murray: “Given that my personal and career focus has been intricately aligned to socially integrated climate change issues over the past decade, the opportunity to incorporate my accumulated environmental and business knowledge, plus academic learning with my international fundraising experience into a direct action role, would enable me to continue a meaningfully contribution to my passionate commitment to the development of a more ecologically sustainable future for the planet and its peoples.”
When asked about how sympathetic were the donors, he added: “I embrace the challenges and benefits of a holistic approach to fundraising communications with donors at all levels of the giving spectrum, and appreciate how a coherent communications strategy across the whole organization can maximize the donor input, operational outputs and enhance the well-being of the organization as a whole.”
He added: “My business success and personal career development has been predicated on my ability to respectfully relate to and build rapport with clients, customers and associates. This now developed trait I regard as one of my major individual and professional strengths, now combined with a skilled ’maturity’, it enables me to comfortably engage with persons at all levels of societal or business structure.”
Major South East Asian Projects
Suite101: OK. How has this translated into action? Can you describe your major project experience?
Murray: “My conservation and aligned environmental management experiences relate to experience in projects undertaken in Indonesia over the past 10 years. They are as follows.
A Debt for Nature / reclamantion project in West Kalimantan, now a central focus of the Australian Government’s FCP along with the IFC in association with the Indonesia Government and also one targeted by commercial REDD interests.
Macquarie Bank. In Indonesian Borneo, West Kalimantan, a pilot REDD project lead by NGO Fauna and Flora International (FFI) in partnership with Australia Macquarie Bank is seeking to work with local communities to manage their forests as a ‘joint carbon pool’.
Readers should refer to http://www.ecosmagazine.com/paper/EC10048.htm
Australian Government. Australian-Indonesian Forest Carbon Partnership announced to coincide with the Indonesian President’s visit to Canberra. The REDD (Reducing Emissions through Deforestation and Degradation) trial project will be located in the Jambi province and receive A$30 million in funding from the International Forest Carbon Initiative (IFCI), which is jointly managed by the Department of Climate Change and AusAID.
IFC backs Macquarie’s REDD venture. 12 July, 2011. This is a project which was established by the NGO I was consulting to in the early 2000’s and was initially supported by Carbon Offsets sold to Shell Canada. BioCarbon Group, a company set up by Australia’s Macquarie bank to invest in forest carbon projects, has attracted a $5 million equity investment from the International Finance Corporation (IFC) and an additional $20 million from its parent bank and Global Forest Partners, a US-based forest management company.
The Singapore-based company will focus on forest-conservation projects in emerging markets that can generate tradeable carbon credits under the reduced emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD) programme. Such credits are currently traded in the voluntary offset market but a mandatory programme is widely expected to result from the UN climate change negotiations.
This investment will enable BioCarbon to develop large-scale REDD projects and meet demand for forest carbon credits,” said Brer Adams, associate director at Macquarie Global Investments.
Sugar Palm / Ethanol Project & Reforestation. Indonesian NGO supported by Dutch Govt. and Dutch Bank finance. A major blue sky project which my associates have been developing for 5 years with a huge untapped international, socially responsible energy production potential. Already with a 55 million litre p.a off-take agreement in principle, signed with a major energy supplier.”
The Likely Beneficiaries to Murray's Climate Change Project Expertise
Suite101: It appears that socially responsible projects, such as the ones you have described, are primarily for the benefit of those who manage them, and for the benefit of foreign government interests. These interests tend to have opaque purposes. So, the real question is who would see a the real financial incentive in employing all this expertise of yours?
Murray: “From the above and from my knowledge, the financial incentive is with the investors and financiers seeking to capitalize on the future potential of International REDD and reforestation Projects who require the coordinated and co-operative ‘partnership’ of a major NGO to support and manage the required ‘social’ aspects of this new source of REDD / carbon investment wealth. So a liaison /project management role on behalf of the major investors (Banks) or Private companies seeking long term offsets would be one direction, offering NGO’s a reverse service would be an alternate option.”
The Larger View
It is likely that business cannot and will not fund climate change and green projects unless those projects can be managed by an NGO relying on international and inter-governmental policies and statute.
Sources:
Personal Interview with Ken Murray, Port Melbourne, 13 January 2012.
ECOS, CSIRO Publishing < http://www.ecosmagazine.com/paper/EC10048.htm>
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