Richard Branson, chairman of Virgin Group Ltd.
Dec. 21 (Bloomberg) -- Billionaire Richard Branson wanted government legislation to reduce the carbon dioxide emitted into the air by his Virgin Atlantic Airways Ltd. aircraft. He didn’t get it so he suggests the industry go it alone.
United Nations envoys from the U.S., China and another 191 countries failed to reach a binding accord to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in two-weeks of talks that ended Dec. 19 in Copenhagen. Even the arrival of U.S. President Barack Obama on Friday didn’t end the impasse.
Branson and executives from General Electric Co., Duke Energy Corp. and Siemens AG say they want clarity next year from governments on emission regulations. Meantime, they plan to invest more to reduce output of carbon gases blamed for global warming.
“The airline industry is one of the polluters,” Branson said in an interview in Copenhagen on Dec. 18. “We owe it to the public to get our house in order. If the governments won’t set targets then I would suggest that the airlines get together and do it themselves and set an example.”
Copenhagen was supposed to be the culmination of two years of talks to set up an agreement to replace the Kyoto Protocol, which was signed in 1997 and set CO2 limits on industrialized economies that expire in 2012. Talks in the Danish capital got bogged down in disputes over aid to developing countries facing damage from climate change, pollution-reduction goals and how to verify individual countries’ pledges to cut harmful emissions.
Less Polluting
Even without a binding climate deal, companies plan to press ahead to make their businesses less polluting.
Branson plans to use more biofuel made from inedible plants in Virgin’s fleet of 115 aircraft. He also wants Boeing Co. and Airbus SAS to build lighter, more efficient aircraft.
GE Chief Executive Officer Jeffrey Immelt has pushed for a price for carbon and U.S. clean energy standards in order to increase sales of less-polluting equipment for nuclear power and coal-fired boilers. The company, whose equipment generates one- third of the world’s electricity, is considering expanding further into clean-energy industries.
Lester Brown, president of the Washington-based Earth Policy Institute, says the private sector will move the world to a low-emissions energy economy and that global accords such as the one being sought in Copenhagen aren’t up to the task.
“They are obsolete. They take too long to negotiate and ratify,” he said in an interview. “In this case, the game may be over by then.”
Letter to Obama
Microsoft Corp., Duke Energy Corp., Nike Inc. and Dow Chemical Co. last week sent a letter to President Barack Obama urging him to push for a treaty with “substantial” financing goals.
“Such an agreement will provide the market certainty that will unleash the investments needed to create jobs and enhance U.S. competitiveness,” according to the Dec. 15 letter.
The agreement in Copenhagen, which leaves it up to individual countries to reduce carbon emissions, will still help boost demand for Dow Chemical Co.’s solar power, battery and insulation products, said Russel Mills, global director energy and climate-change policy at Dow Europe.
“It’s helpful,” Mills said in an interview Dec. 18 in Copenhagen after the accord was reached. “The key issue is we have started on a global process.”
Hamlet
The uncertainty of the UN meeting’s outcome was underscored by a Dec. 12 event at Kronborg Castle in Helsingor, just outside Copenhagen. The town is also known as Elsinore, the setting forWilliam Shakespeare’s “Hamlet.”
The topic: ‘To be, or not to be? New Leadership for a Sustainable Economy.’
“There can be no effective response to the climate problem without business innovation, investment and low-carbon technology and processes,” former U.S. President Bill Clinton told the crowd via videoconference.
Companies in Europe expect tougher emission targets and are preparing to buy emissions permits on the European carbon market, said Abyd Karmali, global head of carbon markets at Bank of America Merrill Lynch. Pending U.S. legislation is more important than a global treaty, he said.
“People are going to focus on their regional domestic markets and the rules on emissions that evolve there,” he said in an interview on Dec. 18.
Siemens AG, the manufacturer planning to supply turbines to the Sahara desert’s biggest solar project, expects its solar- equipment earnings to surge in the next few years. The German engineering company agreed on Oct. 15 to buy solar-thermal power company Solel Solar Systems Ltd. for about $418 million to expand its renewable-energy products.
Enzyme Business
Danisco A/S, the Nordic region’s largest maker of food ingredients, will press ahead with an expansion of its enzyme business, which helps convert plant material into biofuel that can be used in vehicles, said Chief Executive Tom Knudsen.
“I am very encouraged about the momentum in North America,” he said in an interview on Dec. 10. “This is going to be big,” he added, referring to the size of the market for biofuels.
Mindy Lubber, director of the Investor Network on Climate Risk, a network of 80 institutional investors with collective assets totaling $8 trillion, said businesses were encouraged that so many nations came together at Copenhagen and agreed there is a problem.
Still, “most of the hard work still lies ahead,” she said.
To contact the reporter on this story: Jeremy van Loon in Copenhagen viajvanloon@bloomberg.net; Kim Chipman in Copenhagen at KChipman@bloomberg.net.
No comments:
Post a Comment