After 20 years in Asia as a journalist, Mark Clifford took over as executive director of the Hong Kong-based Asia Business Council in 2007. His new book, “The Greening of Asia: The Business Case for Solving Asia’s Environmental Emergency,” explores how Asian companies are making strides in providing environmental solutions. China is a special focus because of the country’s huge emissions of carbon, but also because of its potential for innovation.In an interview, Mr. Clifford discussed the need to link businesses, governments and nongovernmental organizations to fight climate change:

在亚洲当了20多年记者之后，马克·祈福德(Mark Clifford)于2007年出任总部在香港的亚洲企业领袖协会(Asia Business Council)常务董事。他的新书《亚洲的环保：解决亚洲环境紧急状态的商业案例》(The Greening of Asia: The Business Case for Solving Asia’s Environmental Emergency)探讨亚洲企业如何在提供环保解决方案上大步迈进。本书特别关注了中国，不但因为中国的巨大碳排放量，而且也因为其创新的潜力。在一次采访中，祈福德讨论了在应对气候变化问题上，企业、政府和非政府组织互动的必要性：

Q. How did you get interested in this topic?

问：你是怎么对这个主题感兴趣的？
A. I joined the Council in 2007 and inherited an almost-finished study on green buildings. That was pretty exotic in Asia back then, and we published a book on it. It got me thinking about the topic.
答：我2007年到协会工作，接过来一个马上就要完成的绿色建筑研究项目。那时候，绿色建筑在亚洲还是相当新鲜的东西，我们出版了一部有关的书。这让我开始思考这个主题。
Q. Your angle is a bit more hopeful than some. Tell us how that came to be.
问：你的角度比有些人的更充满希望。请问你是怎么形成这种观念的。
A. Originally, I thought I’d do a book along the lines of “The East Is Black.” And we do have an emergency here. In China, 1.2 million a year are dying prematurely. People need to know how bad it is, but then I got to thinking that this was pretty obvious. Instead, I thought that there are these much more positive responses underway, and people should know about them. The business community, which takes challenges and solves problems, was involved. So it is unabashedly a glass-half-full book, but that’s because it’s important to know there’s a way out. We can despair, we can do nothing, or we can work to solve one of the greatest challenges of our time.
答：本来，我以为我会按照“东方黑”这个思路写本书。亚洲目前的确面临着环境的紧急状态。在中国，每年有120万人过早死亡。人们需要知道环境有多么糟糕，但后来我开始思考。环境糟糕是明摆着的。与之相反的是，我觉得有些正在采取的更积极的响应，人们应该了解这些东西。喜欢挑战和解决问题的商业圈子的人参与了进来。所以，这是一本不加掩饰地乐观的书，但这是因为知道有出路很重要。我们可以绝望，我们可以什么都不做，或者我们可以一起解决我们这个时代的一个最大挑战。
Q. Do you see business being the main player in solving the issue?
问：你看到企业在成为解决这个问题的主要力量了吗？
A. No, it’s part of the solution. There has to be a three-legged stool of government, civil society and business, and each has to bring its strengths to the table.
答：没有，企业能解决部分的问题。必须要有政府、公民社会和企业形成的三条腿的凳子，三方都需要拿出自己的长处。
Only governments have the power to set rules — the laws and regulations, of course, but also the prices in the forms of taxes and subsidies as well as facilitating infrastructure developments. Media and NGOs make sure that business and government are doing what they promise.
只有政府有制定规则、也就是法律法规的权力，政府还能以税收和补贴的形式、以及促进基础设施建设来影响价格。媒体和非政府组织能监督企业和政府，看看他们是否在做他们承诺的事情。
Q. What was most surprising is how many companies are doing this in one form or another.
问：最令人惊讶的是，有这么多的公司在以这种或那种形式在做这件事情。
A. Yes, in the book I profile more than a dozen companies at length but also have an appendix of more than 50 companies that are involved with a variety of environmental initiatives. It was surprising to me what’s going on at the corporate level, but they’re doing things for good business reasons. Some are for the P.R. effect, but most look at it as necessary for survival.