Businesses Face Growing Pressure to Reduce Emissions
Many American businesses have succumbed to the concerted media campaign that has
asserts that taking action against global warming will harm businesses and the
economy. In fact, quite the opposite is true: reducing the amount of energy that a
business uses reduces costs and directly enhances a company’s bottom line. Failing to
reduce energy use, and tolerating carbon emissions as part of “business as usual” is
actually a high-risk strategy for a business or for a community.
Leading CEOs around the world know this. CEOs surveyed by the World Economic
Forum in Davos in 2000, stated that for them, “The greatest challenge facing the world
at the beginning of the 21st Century—and the issue where business could most
effectively adopt a leadership role—is climate change.”49 The Climate Group website50
lists case studies of companies and communities that are reducing their emissions and
saving money.
In November 2004, the world agreed. Essentially all of the world’s industrial nations
ratified the Kyoto Protocol to reduce the emissions of greenhouse gasses (the U.S. and
Australia are the only significant holdouts). The Protocol came into force 16 February
2005, launching a new “carbon-constrained” era for the 141 countries that ratified it.51
Among its many provisions, the accord established regulations limiting the amount of
carbon that nations can emit, and created a carbon market through which companies
that reduce further than they are required can sell this extra reduction to companies
unable to meet their targets.