The 2007 List

We have a pop quiz for all our green news aware readers: What do chemical giant DuPont, aluminum producer Alcan, heavy-machinery company Caterpillar, and and BP’s U.S. subsidiary all have in common?  . . .

If you said they all pay “experts” to deny that global warming exists you’d be wrong - at least for this question. Want to try again?

O.K., O.K., you’re never going to get this. Those four giant companies are part of a new group called the “United States Climate Action Partnership (USCAP).” Their plan is to reduce greenhouse gasses by 10-30 percent over the next fifteen years.

Now, as startling and perhaps unexpected as that is what is really remarkable about the news is that they are urging U.S. President George W. Bush—you know, the guy who systematically purged the Federal Government of its pro-environment voices—to do something about global warming. And they are doing it on the eve of the President Bush’s “State of the Nation” address. If your jaw just hit the floor we can wait a minute while you compose yourself. (Wait, if Stephen Harper can have a green epiphany then maybe it is not that surprising.)

What is even more unexpected is that global warming denier Exxon Corporation is cutting back its funding for anti-global warming propaganda. At least according to the Independent Newspaper:

The age of global warming denial, meanwhile, also appears to be drawing to a close. Exxon Mobil, the world’s largest oil company, has cut its funding to groups who argue global warming is a hoax, and is now working to develop strategies it can accept for emissions reduction.

That’s a huge change from just a few months ago, when Exxon Mobil’s chief executive, Lee Raymond, arguably the world’s most prominent global warming sceptic, was still at the helm, and the Senate Energy Committee was headed by the Oklahoma Republican James Inhofe, who made it his business to dismiss scientific opinion on climate change as a conspiracy.

Humour aside for a moment, these kinds of bureaucratic organizations will hold corporations to their promise of a sustainable future. In fact, the ISO system probably has done more to entrench the idea of sustainability in manufacturing than any thousand green lectures on the future of the planet. That’s just the way engineering-driven companies work. So, let’s applaud this move on the part of big companies and do our best to keep this momentum going.

Here is the USCAP mission statement from their recent press release:

Our goal is to help our nation create public policy that would act aggressively and sustainably to slow, stop and reverse the growth of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.

Toward this end, USCAP urges lawmakers to enact a policy framework for mandatory reductions of GHG emissions from major emitting sectors, including large stationary sources, transportation, and energy use in commercial and residential buildings. The cornerstone of this approach would be a cap-and-trade program. The environmental goal is to reduce global atmospheric GHG concentrations to a level that minimizes large-scale adverse impacts to humans and the natural environment. The group recommends Congress provide leadership and establish short- and mid-term emission reduction targets; a national program to accelerate technology research, development and deployment; and approaches to encourage action by other countries, including those in the developing world, as ultimately the solution must be global.

These are complicated problems. There must be a reasoned and serious debate about the solutions. But debate cannot substitute for action. We hope that the consensus we have reached through our unique partnership provides further impetus toward the creation of sensible and effective policies to (...read more...)