The Guardian article on the project to green the Sinai desert is extraordinary and inspirational; a group of scientists are working on a plan to literally make the desert green, building on remarkable local achievements like the transformation of the Loess Plateau in China. It is a remarkable and hopeful vision of possibility and change, an approach to the climate crisis which says that alongside reducing carbon emissions we must also focus on protecting and replenishing the natural world. It reminds us that, as the UN Secretary General said last year, 

"Human activities are at the root of our descent toward chaos. But that means human action can help to solve it."

Last week at Anthony Collins Solicitors, we launched the Ethical Business Project.  In the report (downloadable from our website) we suggest a number of areas that businesses can focus upon if they want to work in a more principles-led way; one of those is of course how they respond to the challenge of our changing climate.

As I reflect on these two things, I think of something Ed Miliband said at the recent Labour in Business event hosted by Social Enterprise UK. He said that climate change, rather than being one of the challenges we have to solve, is the lens through which we need to see all challenges.

As we pause to reflect today on a year like no other, the challenge for all of us is to learn how to see things differently: 

• to see how business can be re-shaped for good; 
• how we can use our energies to protect and grow the natural resources around us; and 
• how this is a common and collaborative endeavour for us all.