With increasing understanding of climate change and pressure from the general public the top US corporations have decided to join with environmental groups forming the US Climate Action Partnership (USCAP) to lobby for greenhouse emissions caps and a carbon market in the US.
Why are 10 of the biggest CEOs of US corporations like Alcoa, BP America, Caterpillar, Duke Energy, DuPont, FPL Group, General Electric, Lehman Brothers, PG&E, and PNM Resources working with four leading non-governmental organizations — Environmental Defense, Natural Resources Defense Council, Pew Center on Global Climate Change, and World Resources Institute?
Just a year back this would not have been possible. But with increasing legislation in various US States, European Union and the Kyoto Protocol, the corporations are worried that a national policy would be better than piecemeal solutions.
Jim Owens, Caterpillar‘s chairman and CEO says, “We felt it was better to be in the formative stages of this legislation and have a constructive voice. … You could cost yourself out of the market if you aren’t careful,”
This is a good sign. With Bush’s State of the Union address coming up, there is increasing expectation that there could be a change in White House’s policy on Climate Change.
Sterling Burnett, a senior fellow at the National Center for Policy Analysis, believes that the utilities that are investing in wind and nuclear energy are trying to create a competitive advantage.
“I think a lot of these companies, especially the utilities, have thrown in the towel and think that legislation is inevitable,” said Burnett. “Rather than fight regulation in every state they operate in, they would much rather have one unified national standard.”
“If you force carbon caps, it is going to hurt the coal industry while helping those invested in wind power and nuke power,” he said. “There is a very strong profit motive here.”
He is right but that is not bad. Profits will create new markets and these markets can help curb greenhouse gases.
Their six principles are,
- Account for the global dimensions of climate change;
- Create incentives for technology innovation;
- Be environmentally effective;
- Create economic opportunity and advantage;
- Be fair to sectors disproportionately impacted; and
- Reward early action.
One worry for me still is that there is an excessive concentration on climate change and not on sustainability as a whole. However, this is a good change.
