Last month I had a contribution regarding the climate change summit taking place in Copenhagen at the time. Halfway through that summit it was still unclear whether some form of agreement was going to be reached.

At the end there appeared to have been some form of deal, but in effect there was no deal at all. The only real commitment was to revisit the issue again during 2010. Irrespective of what world's leaders agree on, I had argued that the real deal on addressing the issue of climate change should be struck between governments and the business sector.

Essentially it is the economy through its various activities that produces the very major part of greenhouse gases that are harming the environment and this is why we require a deal between governments and the business sector. Governments have to provide the necessary incentives to businesses to make their activities greener and also need to intervene in the market to encourage consumers to purchase greener goods and services. There are enough reasons to support this viewpoint, the major one being the positive economic externalities of environment friendly processes, good and services.

Today, there is a new type of consumer that is emerging which businesses and governments need to take account of. These are generally referred to as LOHAS - a lifestyle of health and sustainability. It may well be that this is not yet the mass market and product developers would label them as the innovators or the experimenters.

However, the trend is that the LOHAS group will grow in size and will eventually become the average consumer. Since the start of the international recession there have been changes in consumer priorities because of a decline in incomes, a decline in wealth and an increase in uncertainty. These changes in consumer priorities are clearly leading to changes in consumer demands.

Companies worldwide, especially those producing fast moving consumer goods, have been accustomed to throwing products on the market as if there were no tomorrow. Businesses would produce and sell. This has not been much different in Malta. The best example in our country has been property development.

Apartments were being built with the attitude that anything would eventually sell. Consumers' needs and priorities were simply not part of the equation. The financial meltdown and the subsequent severe economic recession has meant, apart from other things, that consumers would need to determine how an expenditure would impact on their lives, when making a purchasing decision.

As risk becomes more central in consumers' calculations, it would seem that every expenditure has become an important one and, as such, issues relating the environment in its broadest sense and sustainability become very relevant. What companies need to do is to be committed to understand consumers better and develop green goods and services that do not suffer in terms of performance and that are not premium priced. This is not a process that businesses are used to and this is where governments need to step in as they need to support such a process.

Within this context, innovation becomes critical. It needs to be at the heart and soul of this green deal between governments and businesses. Businesses need to find ways and means of how to thrive and achieve excellence, keeping the environment as one of their key priorities.

Governments have pumped huge sums of money to support businesses to survive the challenges first of the crisis in the financial system and then of the economic recession. In our own little way, even the Maltese Government has had to provide public funds to support companies to invest further and maintain their operations in this country.

The expectation among consumers in the more economically developed parts of the world is that these public funds should be used to encourage investment in greener technology and in greener goods and services. Consumers are expecting that governments and businesses do strike a green deal.