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Leading Energy and Manufacturing Firms Join Forces to Address Climate Change

Strategic Insights

— 1 min read

A group of leading energy and manufacturing firms, including Shell Oil, British Petroleum, Intel, Cinergy Corporation, and Alcan Inc., joined an environmental think tank in February 2006 to develop a comprehensive plan to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in the United States. The firms endorsed the "Agenda for Climate Action" by the Pew Center on Climate Change, a non-governmental group that works with the private sector to provide reliable information and solutions on climate change. This move coincided with a call by 85 influential US evangelical Christian leaders for the US Congress to pass legislation that would reduce emissions of GHGs.

Key Takeaways:

  • The Pew Center on Climate Change developed a comprehensive plan to reduce GHG emissions in the United States, endorsed by leading energy and manufacturing firms such as Shell Oil, British Petroleum, Intel, Cinergy Corporation, and Alcan Inc.
  • The "Agenda for Climate Action" calls for a combination of economy-wide mandatory emission cuts, technology development, scientific research, alternative energy production, and adaptation to address climate change.
  • The Pew report notes that concentrations of GHGs 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."
  • The report emphasizes transportation and energy use, the two major sources of US GHG emissions, and recommends increasing vehicle fuel efficiency standards to reduce emissions.
  • Companies are building new coal plants, and it is urgent to develop sequestration technologies to capture and store GHG emissions from coal power plants.
  • The Pew report concludes that the transition to a low GHG emission economy "will not be easy, but ... further delay will only make the challenge before us more daunting and costly."

Statistics:

  • The United States is responsible for a quarter of the world's GHG emissions (Source).
  • US GHG emissions have grown 18% since 1990 (Source).
  • Concentrations of GHGs are the highest they have been in hundreds of thousands of years (Source).
  • Transportation accounts for 30% of US GHG emissions (Source).
  • Vehicle fuel efficiency standards have remained virtually unchanged since 1985 (Source).

Sources:

  • Pew Center on Climate Change (original report)
  • "Major Firms Endorse Climate Plan" (www.ipsnews.net/news.asp? idnews=32116)
  • Unreferenced statement: "85 influential US evangelical Christian leaders"

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