Big Business Wants 85% CO2 Cuts: Now Who Do We Blame?

[bananas]

Big Business Wants 85% CO2 Cuts: Now Who Do We Blame?
by Sami Grover, Carrboro, NC, USA on 09.23.09

There was a time when we environmentalists would routinely bash big business for standing in the way of real change. But with Wal-Mart pressuring suppliers to go green and even McDonalds installing EV charging points, the picture is getting muddier. Now a group of over 500 major international businesses including Nike, GE, HP, SC Johnson and many others have gotten together as signatories to the Copenhagen Communique - demanding commitment to massive CO2 cuts of 50-85% at the Copenhagen Summit. (Crucially, many small to medium sized enterprises are included too - including TreeHugger favorites The Bioregional Development Group.) So does this mark a paradigm shift?

It is, of course, hard to say. On the one hand, the more major businesses stand up and say loud and clearly that economic growth cannot continue without huge cuts in emissions, the less excuse politicians will have for piecemeal solutions and half-measures. I think the first demand of the communique is worth quoting in full (we're not usually encouraged to quote large paragraphs - but this is important):

The agreement must establish a global emissions cap and long-term reduction pathway for all greenhouse gas emissions and sources, for the period 2013 to 2050 (with interim targets). These targets will need to be guided by science to ensure global greenhouse gas concentrations are stabilised below critical thresholds. When stating this, we understand that there is an emerging consensus behind an objective of limiting global average temperature rise to less than 2 degrees Celsius compared to pre-industrial levels and that this will require global emissions to peak and begin to decline rapidly within the next decade. Even this scenario will require a reduction of 50-85% by 2050, according to the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), and the later the peak in emissions, the greater and costlier the required reduction. There is nothing to be gained by delay.

It's this final sentence that is most important - "there is nothing to be gained by delay." The business world is demanding action - and it is demanding action now.

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[pscot]

1. I'll believe it

when her friends in the awl bidniss tell Ms. Landrieu it's OK to vote for the climate bill.

[kristopher]

2. This is predictable and it is a very good sign

There are always winners and losers in change, and the larger the change the larger the win or loss. Therefore making a large change a reality is going to depend on having a pool of winners-from-change that outweighs the pool of losers-from-change.

We are at that tipping point.