Negotiators understand that the art of "positioning" a proposal is the key to making or breaking a deal. For far too long have climate change advocates and publications been putting big corporations and governments on guilt trips, which have resulted in the construction of defenses and eventually, nonchalance. The UN talks (as well as other major energy and environmental events) should be platforms not simply for political delegates to debate over circumstances beyond their control using general assumptions that wipe out any potential for ground-level changes. It should also cater for exchanges between green technology businesses and coal/oil guzzling industry trend setters, especially for opportunities where the latter can voice their concerns regarding their bottom line.
Green technology is advancing at breakneck pace today, and climate-positive improvements to instruments and production processes are saturating the markets. What green businesses need to do is to penetrate their clienteles' markets and listen to the conversations within, before re-positioning their proposals. They have to identify key players and trendsetters, and from there cater their products to these clients' specific needs. If it means moving away from the fanatical green movement that has been mowing down other important considerations with their one-track minded zealousness, then such an ideology shift would be no less than a necessity.
This is not to say that all green efforts have to submit to the wimps and fancies of big corporations with no impetus to make changes. That analogy is itself a biased picture painted by environmental extremists. However, like the article has already noted, if private corporations continue to be ostracized from such high-level negotiations, such actions will only create opportunities to demonize them further. And shouldn't their profit objectives be taken more seriously, in light of their (admittedly overestimated) negotiation power over governments in the era of economic globalization?
Definitely important in any negotiation that the needs of all the interested parties are taken into account. So there is no point governments agreeing deals if key stakeholders such as big businesses in their own countries are unable or unwilling to implement the measures agreed. I do feel that there is a further problem though which is that the climate change talks are just too large and unwieldy to yield meaningful change - 200 countries were at Cancun and 15,000 delegates. Perhaps more progress would be made in smaller international or regional forums where governments (and the key businesses they represent, and the relevant green lobbying groups) might find it easier to find some common ground.
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