For a while now, major corporations have been pushing for mandatory greenhouse gas emission caps from the US government.
Big business understands the inevitability of having to deal with the global warming issue and the sooner they can see a strong economic signal from government, the sooner they can get on with tackling the issue on a level playing field.
Today, big business has kicked that demand way up.
In a two-page ad in the Financial Times, 150 multinational corporations, including Coca-Cola, General Electric, Shell, Nestlé, Nike, DuPont, Johnson & Johnson, British Airways and Shanghai Electric, have issued a statement calling for a legally binding and mandatory cap on worldwide greenhouse gas emissions.
The statement reads in part, that the scientific evidence for climate change is “now overwhelming” and that a legally binding agreement “will provide business with the certainty it needs to scale up global investment in low-carbon technologies.”
But the supposedly “business-friendly” Republican White House clings to what they like to call “aspirational targets” on greenhouse gas emission reductions.
“Apsirational” isn’t even a real word, but is sure is good PR spin.
The White House head of the Council on Environmental Quality, James Connaughton said yesterday that the Bush administration, “is committed to reducing U.S. greenhouse gas emissions, even though it opposes a mandatory, economy-wide carbon cap.”
So if the White House is committed to reducing GHG emissions, why then would they be worried about mandatory caps? Especially if business is asking for them.
Even oil giant, Shell, is demanding mandatory caps. James Smith, chairman of Shell UK, stated that mandatory and legally binding caps on greenhouse gas, “give business the confidence to make those long-term investments in lower-carbon technologies.”
Next week in Bali, while the rest of the world meets to discuss mandatory greenhouse gas emissions at the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, the US will find itself isolated as the lone holdout (except Canada) among nations.
Now it appears that their former close allies in big business won’t even be there to back them up.
