Global businesses demand ambitious new climate deal

Peter Griffiths, Reuters 21 Sep 09;

LONDON (Reuters) - A coalition of more than 500 international companies on Tuesday urged rich countries to commit to "immediate and deep" cuts in greenhouse gas emissions at U.N. climate talks to help combat global warming.

The group of some of the world's biggest energy companies, retailers and manufacturers said a failure to agree a strong new climate deal at U.N. talks in Copenhagen in December would erode confidence and cut investment in low-carbon technology.

In a statement issued as nations met for a climate summit at the United Nations in New York, the coalition said economic development will be impossible without a stable climate.

"These are difficult and challenging times for the international business community and a poor outcome from...Copenhagen will only make them more so," it said.

"If a sufficiently ambitious, effective and globally equitable deal can be agreed, it will...deliver the economic signals that companies need if they are to invest billions of dollars in low carbon products, services, technologies and infrastructure."

The statement was issued by companies who back a campaign by Britain's Prince Charles, heir to the throne and environmental campaigner, to press for new government policies on climate change and "to grasp the business opportunities created by moving to a low climate-risk economy."

Members of the prince's Corporate Leaders Group on Climate Change include Britain's largest retailer Tesco, German insurer Allianz and Royal Dutch Shell, Europe's largest oil company by market value. Launched in 2005, it is managed for the prince by the University of Cambridge.

Disagreements between rich and poor countries over emissions caps and how much money emerging economies should receive to cope with climate change have hampered preliminary talks before the U.N. negotiations in the Danish capital.

The business group urged nations to set aside their differences and confront climate change with the same urgent, joint approach they took during the economic crisis.

"Developed countries need to take on immediate and deep emission reduction commitments that are much higher than the global average," the statement added.

(Editing by Jon Boyle)

Global business chiefs urge 'robust' climate deal
Yahoo News 22 Sep 09;

LONDON (AFP) – The chiefs of more than 500 global companies called Tuesday for an "ambitious, robust and equitable" climate change deal, in the spotlight in New York ahead of a landmark meeting in Copenhagen.

The business leaders from over 50 countries including Brazil, Britain, China, Japan, Russia and the United States said measures to spur recovery from the global downturn must be environmentally sustainable.

"Economic development will not be sustained in the longer term unless the climate is stabilised," they said in a Copenhagen Communique, organised as part of a project based at Britain's Cambridge University and backed by Prince Charles.

"It is critical that we exit this recession in a way that lays the foundation for low-carbon growth and avoids locking us into a high-carbon future," they added, calling for "an ambitious, robust and equitable global deal on climate change that responds credibly to the scale and urgency of the crises facing the world today".

The call came as some 100 world leaders gathered in New York trying to breathe new life into deadlocked negotiations, 100 days before the December Copenhagen meeting aiming to seal a successor to the landmark Kyoto Protocol.

Kyoto was signed in 1997 and came into force in 2005, but has been hobbled by the refusal of president George W. Bush's US administration to back it as it would be too costly for US business and the American economy.

Signatories of the Copenhagen Communique include Willie Walsh of British Airways, Richard Branson of Virgin, Nike boss Mark Parker, Shiro Kondo of Japan's Ricoh Company and Naguib Sawiris of Egypt-based Orascom Telecom.

"As a business leader I can only achieve my ambition if my actions are underpinned by the foundation of political intent and robust law. The bolder the political ambition the bolder I can be," said Branson.

Cameron Clyne of the National Australia Bank said he had signed "because it is vital to play a meaningful part in shaping effective global and local responses and solutions to climate change."