|
Corporate America has done an about-face on global warming in the past few years.
In 1989, major corporations and trade associations formed the Global Climate Coalition to fight U.S. participation in an international effort to curb global warming. Citing a number of scientific skeptics, the coalition disputed the theory that carbon dioxide and other gases emitted by burning fossil fuels were causing a potentially devastating warming of Earth's atmosphere.
As international support for a global-warming treaty built, the coalition stepped up its lobbying effort to convince lawmakers to oppose the 1997 treaty, called the Kyoto Protocol. Coalition members considered the agreement's legally binding targets for reducing carbon emissions a threat to their businesses.
But several large companies now see business opportunities in the shift toward alternatives to fossil fuels, the main source of U.S. emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases. Some energy producers have diversified their operations to include renewable energy sources, such as wind, geothermal and solar power, as well as oil, gas and coal extraction. Manufacturers of industrial and consumer goods also are looking for less-polluting ways to operate.
A visible sign of the change in corporate views toward global warming has been the exodus of several major companies, including Ford Motor Co. and General Motors Corp., from the Global Climate Coalition. Several firms also have publicly pledged to voluntarily reduce their carbon emissions and joined new organizations that support research into global warming and promote business practices that reduce their harmful impact on the global climate.
One such organization is the Business Environmental Leadership Council, a group set up by the Pew Center on Global Climate Change, which seeks economically sustainable solutions to global warming. The 28-member council -- which includes such corporate giants as chemicals producer DuPont, Japanese automaker Toyota, U.S. software maker Intel and aerospace giant Boeing -- agrees that the scientific evidence of global warming is strong enough to justify seeking ways to reduce carbon emissions.
“I think there has been a huge shift in the business community over the last two or three years,” says Eileen Clausen, the Pew Center's president, who predicts that the council's membership will grow to around 50 companies by late spring. “It may sound Pollyanna-ish, but a lot of these CEOs actually believe in being good global citizens.”
The Pew Center specifically sought out members from energy-intensive industries that have much at stake, “but [who] also feel that global warming is a serious problem and that something should be done about it,” she says.
Global-warming skeptics dismiss the shift in corporate statements on the issue as a public-relations gambit. “They are doing it entirely for PR purposes, to appear to be concerned and green and caring for the environment,” says S. Fred Singer, an outspoken critic of the scientific methods used to justify mandates to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions. “It also allows them to become friendly with government regulators and get better treatment for some of their pollution problems.”
But several companies are placing their bottom lines at risk by joining another business group, sponsored by Environmental Defense, a New York-based organization that seeks to involve businesses in environmental-protection efforts. As a condition of membership, the Partnership for Climate Action requires companies to set firm targets for reducing their greenhouse-gas emissions. It currently includes seven multinational corporate members (some of which also belong to the Business Environmental Leadership Council) that also are major carbon emitters -- energy producers BP Amoco, Shell International and Suncor of Canada; the public Canadian electric utility Ontario Power; DuPont; and Alcan Aluminum of Canada and Pechiney S.A. of France, respectively the world's second- and third-largest aluminum producers.
Fred Krupp, executive director of Environmental Defense, thinks the shift in corporate attitudes on global warming bodes well for the Kyoto Protocol's eventual ratification. The treaty is currently bogged down in controversy following the breakdown in negotiations at last November's meeting of signatories in The Hague, Netherlands.
“Despite the fact that we came home from The Hague empty-handed, it was really striking that the business community was not there in force rejecting the agreement, as it had been in each and every one of the preceding conferences of the parties to Kyoto,” Krupp says. “Indeed, many businesses issued statements of disappointment when an agreement failed to be reached.”
According to Krupp, the combined greenhouse-gas emissions of these companies equal those of Spain, the world's 12th largest industrialized nation. They have pledged to reduce their emissions by a total of 80 million tons a year by 2010.
“Companies are increasingly recognizing the problem of global warming and doing something about it,” says Krupp, who expects more major corporations to join the partnership in coming months. “In fact, you'd have to say they're ahead of the governments on this issue.”
|
Read the Full Report (Subscription Required)
