Stephen Leahy
BROOKLIN, Canada, Feb 10 2006 (IPS) – Several leading energy and manufacturing firms have joined with a prominent environmental think tank to develop the United States first comprehensive plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
Shell Oil, British Petroleum, Cinergy Corp., Intel, the aluminium producer Alcan Inc., and others have endorsed the Agenda for Climate Action issued by the Virginia-based Pew Centre on Climate Change, a non-governmental group that works with the private sector to provide reliable information and solutions on climate change.
The report, released Wednesday, is the first broad consensus of the policies needed for the U.S. to successfully address the environmental problems caused by the burning of fossil fuels like oil and coal, says Eileen Claussen, president of the Pew Centre.
It coincided with a widely-publicised call by 85 influential U.S. evangelical Christian leaders for Congress to pass legislation that would reduce emissions of greenhouse gases.
Some believe the answer to addressing climate change lies in technology incentives. Others say limiting emissions is the only answer. We need both, said Claussen in a statement.
The U.S. is responsible for 25 percent of the world s emissions of greenhouse gases (GHG), but the George W. Bush administration pulled out of the Kyoto Protocol to address climate change in 2001. The treaty, which runs until 2012 and has been ratified by more than 150 countries, commits participating developed nations to cut their emissions to an average of 5.2 percent below 1990 levels.
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The administration s refusal to consider mandatory GHG reductions has placed it at odds with environmental groups, many state and local governments, and even a number of large corporations concerned that the current reliance on fossil fuels is unsustainable in the long term.
The Pew report notes that concentrations of GHG are the highest they have been in hundreds of thousands of years, causing observable impacts throughout the world, and these changes are happening more quickly than expected .
I am convinced that it is prudent to take action now to address what we do know (about climate change), said James Rogers, the CEO of Cinergy, in a statement. Cinergy, a Cincinnati-based energy utility, is the fifth largest U.S. producer of electricity from coal.
The report calls for a combination of economy-wide mandatory emissions cuts, technology development, scientific research, alternative energy production, and adaptation. It makes 15 specific recommendations that can be implemented right away, including U.S.. domestic reductions and engagement in the international negotiation process.
The report represents a pragmatic and meaningful action plan to reduce emissions, said Vicki Arroyo, the director of policy analysis at the Pew Centre.
Constructive participation by the U.S. at the international level to strengthen global efforts to reduce emissions is an important part of this plan, Arroyo told IPS. The George W. Bush administration s voluntary reduction plan is clearly not working, and that s not going to change without policy and regulation, she said.
The head of Shell Oil Company agrees. The changes needed in our energy infrastructure to meet future demand and respond to climate change will not happen by chance, said John Hofmeister, its president and U.S. chair.
A clear, long-term framework will give business the necessary incentive and confidence to invest further, Hofmeister said in a statement.
The report gives special attention to transportation and energy use because they are the two major sources of U.S. emissions, Arroyo noted. The transportation sector alone accounts for 30 percent of all U.S. emissions, and attempts to improve vehicle fuel efficiency over the past few years have failed due to intense lobbying from carmakers and some oil companies, and opposition by the Bush administration.
U.S. vehicle fuel efficiency standards under the Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) programme have changed little since 1985. And recent research by Consumer Reports calculated that the actual miles per gallon of 2003 U.S. vehicle fleets were overstated by more than 30 percent.
To get around the miles-per-gallon political logjam, the report recommends setting a tradeable GHG-emissions-per-mile standard for a car manufacturer s fleet of vehicles, Arroyo said.
Although similar to the current CAFE programme, the key difference is that a company whose average is below the standard could earn credits that could be banked for future years or sold to other car manufacturers or on the growing carbon credit marketplace.
It gets at the climate change problem and offers away around the CAFE programme impasse, she said.
Major government incentives are also needed to bring zero or low-emission vehicles to market, along with increased spending on research into biofuels.
Improving energy efficiency is the easiest thing that we could do and companies tell us cost savings usually result from those improvements, Arroyo said.
However, more efficient energy use and production will not be nearly enough to achieve the needed emissions reductions in an economy where per capita energy use is climbing ever upward as people acquire more and more electronic gadgets. U.S. emissions have grown by more than 18 percent since 1990, and the Department of Energy projects that they will increase by another 37 percent by 2030.
Coal is by far the most GHG-intensive form of energy, and because it is cheap, it will continue to be a major source of U.S. energy. Massive investments in researching ways to capture and store GHG from coal power plants are needed, the report says.
We re going to need all forms of energy production, including more coal and nuclear, Arroyo noted. Despite the Bush administration s support for clean coal technologies, the U.S. is not investing anywhere near what will be needed to make this work.
Companies are currently building new coal plants, so there is tremendous urgency to develop these new technologies, she said. In addition, a safety and regulatory regime needs to be set up.
These are all vital as the utility industry prepares to build the next generation of power plants needed by our growing economy, said Cinergy s Rogers.
Indeed, the report expresses the need for urgent action throughout. The much-needed transition to a low-emission economy will not be easy but it is crucial to begin now. Further delay will only make the challenge before us more daunting and costly, it concludes.
