COPENHAGEN, Denmark _ From the legions of environmental Cassandras gathered in Copenhagen, Denmark, for international climate negotiations, an unlikely batch of advocates has emerged to champion a new global warming agreement: businesspeople.
Corporate leaders, the rarest of commodities at the first climate talks nearly two decades ago, have staked a claim to the title of biggest player in Copenhagen outside of official negotiators themselves.
They have blanketed the host Bella Center in company logos and glossy brochures touting business efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. An army of chief executives descended on the conference Friday to urge the assembled government officials to restrict emissions and thereby unleash a new wave of so-called clean energy investment. On Sunday, Coca-Cola was to co-host a business roundtable with the World Wildlife Fund.
Some of the executives, including major players in the utility and technology sectors, see massive profit potential in a worldwide shift away from fossil fuels and toward wind, solar, energy efficiencies and other low-emission energy sources.
Other companies say they're looking for uniformity in the increasingly global economy, where major markets such as Europe currently restrict emissions while the United States and most of Asia do not.
Government leaders at the conference say the increased corporate engagement has given new urgency to the negotiations and improved the chances of averting what scientists say could be the most catastrophic effects of climate change.
"This climate problem is too big, and the need for investment is too great, for government to do it alone," Commerce Secretary Gary Locke told an overflow crowd Friday.
The big-business side to the talks has angered some climate activists, who decry "green capitalism" and call for massive wealth transfers from the richest nations to developing countries struggling to cope with climate change. One Friday speech at Klimaforum09, a gathering of environmentalists running parallel to the conference, was titled "Global Warming: the Capitalist Catastrophe and the Eco-socialist Alternative."
And while increasingly vocal, business leaders remain somewhat divided on climate policy, with groups such as the U.S. Chamber of Commerce urging "realism" on global efforts and opposing emissions limits pending before Congress.
Several economic studies funded by business groups have warned this year that emissions limits would cripple U.S.
Subscribe To
Posts
Comments