Heads of dozens of international companies have come under fire from a
prominent institutional investor for drawing up a statement on climate
change that largely confines itself to discussion of how technology
alone can curb global warming.
The statement, produced by the Global Roundtable on Climate Change and
signed by Allianz, Bayer, Citigroup, DuPont, General Electric and
Volvo, among others, says businesses need to switch to non-fossil
fuels, increase energy efficiency, and develop technology such as
carbon capture and sequestration that can bury the carbon dioxide
produced by burning fossil fuels beneath the earth’s surface.
The roundtable calls its statement ‘a bold post-Kyoto framework for
effecting change at the levels of policy and industry’, but Rory
Sullivan, head of investor responsibility at Insight Investment, told EP
he was surprised that it ‘seems to completely ignore the question of
increased consumption as a driver of climate change, relying instead
simply on technology as a solution’.
Sullivan said the statement ‘makes sensible policy proposals for
improving energy efficiency and reducing greenhouse gas emissions per
unit of production,’ but he argued it was shortsighted of business
leaders to ‘neglect the fundamental issue of how increased consumption
and economic growth impact on greenhouse gas emissions’.
He added: ‘All of the available evidence is that, despite the many
improvements we have made in greenhouse gas emissions intensity in our
economies, emissions in most countries have continued on an upward
path.’
Sullivan’s comments were supported by Mark Lee, chief executive of the
SustainAbility consultancy, who warned that technology alone was not
the solution.
Lee told EP: ‘We welcome the
strong statement on efforts the business community must take to
mitigate and then reverse the impacts of climate change. But in
addition to technological solutions, we hope both business and
government will look at the issues of consumption and economic growth.’
Lee added: ‘We need to examine whether we can unlock the creativity
required to develop and maintain thriving economies without
ever-increasing consumption as the key driver.’
The statement, which is also signed by heads of international
organizations, is the main outcome of the roundtable set up three years
ago by the Earth Institute at Columbia University to act as a
discussion forum for business and civil society leaders.
Signatories also undertake to increase public awareness of climate
change risks, report on their greenhouse gas emissions and ‘support
public policy efforts to mitigate climate change’.
However, there is no mention of reining back on consumption or growth.
