Top Corporate Execs Demand Tougher U.S. Policy on Climate Change

23/01/2007 | Bron(nen): OneWorld

NEW YORK - While already pushed to the wall by growing opposition from the Congress on many issues, the Bush administration this week found a new but powerful critic of its policy on climate change.

Joining hands with the country's leading environmental groups, some of the nation's top corporate leaders declared Monday they were no longer in position to support the White House's stance on global warming.

"The time has come for constructive action that draws strength from business, government, and non-governmental stakeholders," Jeff Immelt, chairman and chief executive officer of General Electric, told a news conference in Washington Monday.

Immelt and other business leaders warned that any delay in action to control greenhouse gases would increase the risk of "unavoidable circumstances" that could demand even further reductions in the future.

The Kyoto treaty requires industrialized countries to cut emissions by an average of 5 percent below 1990 levels by 2012. Currently, the United States is not doing so because the Bush administration has refused to recognize the treaty.

The administration's rejection of the treaty is mainly based on the argument that it would hurt U.S. businesses, which, according to numerous studies, are responsible for about 25 percent of the world's greenhouse gas emissions.

But business leaders, who have forged a new alliance with environmental groups called the U.S. Climate Action Partnership (USCAP), said they believed that effective legislative measures to control greenhouse gases would rather bring about a healthy and positive change in the country's economy.

The alliance, which is the outcome of a year of efforts by environmental activists to reach out to business leaders for their support for changes in U.S. climate policy, consists of prominent market leaders such as Aloca, BP America, Caterpillar, Duke Energy, DuPont, FPL Group, General Electric, Lehman Brothers, PG&E, and PNM resources.

Observers say that because of the financial power of these companies, their decision to ally with environmental groups on this issue should add to the momentum for change in Washington's policy. According to some estimates, the total value of the market capitalization of the companies involved is no less than $750 billion.

Among the leading environmental groups and think tanks involved in the new alliance are the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), Environmental Defense, the Pew Center on Global Climate Change, and World Resources Institute.

With their growing influence on policy makers, these groups enjoy the support of 1 million members worldwide.

Describing their "unique cooperation" as a "clear signal" to lawmakers on Capitol Hill that it was time for action, the alliance leaders called for a policy framework for mandatory reductions for greenhouse gas emissions from all major commercial concerns, including the transport and energy sectors.

On Monday, the alliance released a report, titled "Call for Action," which lays out a new set of principles and recommendations for lawmakers and promotes a mandatory, economy-wide, market-driven approach to climate protection.

"These recommendations should catalyze legislative action that encourages innovation and fosters economic growth while enhancing energy security and balance of trade," General Electric's Immelt told reporters.

They would "ensure U.S. leadership on an issue of significance to our country and the world," he added.

The alliance urged Congress to establish both short-term as well as long-term targets for a national program to speed up technology research and take a leadership role in encouraging other countries, including developing ones, to do the same.

"The undertaking to address climate change is an enormous one," said Jonathan Lash, president of the Washington, DC-based World Resources Institute. "But enacting environmentally effective, economically sustainable, and fair climate change law must be a national priority."

For its part, the Democratic-led Congress recently signaled its readiness to move ahead with new legislative proposals on climate change policy.

"We pledge to work to pass an effective system of mandatory limits on greenhouse gases," Democratic legislator Barbara Boxer and her colleagues told Bush in a letter last November, urging him to work with them "to signal to the world that global warming legislation is on the way."

Boxer has introduced legislation that would mandate an 80 percent cut in U.S. emissions by 2050.

In a joint statement, the alliance leaders said the passage of the Energy Policy Act of 2005 to encourage efficiency and promote clean technology was "a positive step" but added that it was not enough.

"[The Energy Policy Act] alone cannot get us where we need to be," the statement said. "A mandatory system is needed that sets clear, predictable, market-based requirements to reduce greenhouse gas emissions."

Haider Rizvi
OneWorld US