Views from the Apeldoorn Conference

Where I went straight on to was the Apeldoorn Conference. The series started in 2000 and brings together participants from the UK and the Netherlands 'to reflect on issues of political relevance and shared concern'. The central theme of this year's conference was 'Sustainability', and the conference title - 'Facing up to Reality: Choices for a Sustainable World'.

Early on I decided to ask some of the people I met at the conference the following question:

If you had to pick out a single thing you think is important to dealing with the problems we're discussing, what would it be?

There were about a hundred participants all told, and I managed to put that question to just over 20 of them. A few didn't feel they had an answer. But 17 people offered one. I'm posting their responses with their permission. I give in each case not a verbatim quote but the sense of what was said to me.

Paul Allen, Centre for Alternative Technology: Contraction (of CO2 emissions) and convergence (equalizing national entitlements to emit CO2 on a per capita basis globally).

Colin Challen MP: Any piece of rhetoric must be backed up by a proposal that does the job.

Lord William Wallace of Saltaire: Governments have to take the problem seriously, and not be so timid.

John Verhoeven, Chief Editor, OnzeWereld magazine: There must be government legislation to oblige companies to operate in an environmentally responsible way.

Daniel Glaser, Head of Special Projects in Public Engagement, The Wellcome Trust: 'Undistort' economies so that people have to bear the full costs of their actions.

Peter Kellner, President of YouGov: We have to engage people's sense of security, getting them to understand that their security is more threatened by a failure to change than it is by change.

Karen Kiernan, Senior Broadcast Journalist, BBC: Educate the consumer about the environmental consequences of his or her actions.

Fay Mansell, Chair of the National Federation of Women's Institutes: There must be international cooperation, within assumptions of fairness towards the less developed countries.

Professor Tom Burke, Environmental Policy Adviser to Rio Tinto plc: If we don't do carbon sequestration and storage pretty quickly, it won't matter what we do.

Simon Kuper, The Financial Times: The best thing we can do as individuals is to try to influence Chinese - especially official Chinese - opinion. Also Indian and US opinion.

Maarten van den Bergh, Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Akzo Nobel nv: Governments will have to intervene - even at the price of unpopularity.

Judith Grant, Head of the International Strategy Division in the Department for Education and Skills and the Department for Work and Pensions: We need to influence people's values away from thinking that consuming more is desirable.

Clive Betts MP: We have to get the balance right between government action and individuals being persuaded there are things they themselves can do that can make a difference.

Margo Boye-Anawomah, Barrister and Deputy District Judge: Try to secure micro-finance, from multinationals and other organizations, for small-scale initiatives in the developing world that are environmentally friendly.

Petra Wilton, Head of Public Affairs, Chartered Institute of Management: Education of companies and other public bodies about the implications of their policies for energy use.

John Peet, The Economist: The solution has to involve all the big players - it must be a project of global cooperation.

Sylvia Borren, Executive Director, Oxfam Novib: Justice - if we make the world more just, this will have beneficial consequences for climate change and the environment.