British Business Leaders Urge Deep Climate Emissions Cuts

LONDON, UK, June 7, 2006 (ENS) - Fourteen senior executives of some of the UK’s largest firms have offered their support to Prime Minister Tony Blair in taking bold steps to prevent climate change. Invited by the Prime Minister to Number 10 Downing Street Tuesday for round-table talks on climate change, the business leaders presented Blair with an open letter outlining seven areas in which they want to work with the government to help strengthen British leadership on climate change.

The most important of the seven areas, the executives emphasized, is taking on ambitious targets in Phase 2 of the EU Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) and setting targets to 2025. This action should be "key to the UK's climate change strategy," they said.

“We want to work with the government and other companies across Europe towards strengthening this critically important piece of policy,” said James Smith, chairman of Shell UK. “We need EU governments to set clear targets for the ETS out to 2025 so that our businesses and others can have the confidence to make long-term investments in reducing emissions.”

British Prime Minister Tony Blair addresses the climate change round-table Tuesday at No. 10 Downing St. (Photo courtesy Office of the Prime Minister)

Developed under the auspices of the Prince of Wales’ Business and the Environment Programme, the Corporate Leaders Group is made up of business leaders from: ABN Amro, AWG, BAA, BP, Cisco Systems, F&C Asset Management, HSBC, John Lewis Partnership, Johnson Matthey, Scottish Power, Shell, Standard Chartered Bank, and Sun Microsystems.

"Even though the UK only emits two percent of global greenhouse gas emissions," they said in the letter to Blair, "we agree with your view that we can and should play a leading role in the development of a long-term international framework for action on climate change."

"We support your objective of moving quickly to progress talks about international action beyond the first Kyoto Commitment Period in 2012, and agree that the goal of such action should be to stabilize greenhouse gas emissions and global temperature levels," the letter states.

James Smith is chairman of Shell UK. Until the end of 2003 he was on the global board of Shell Chemicals as head of technology, strategy and sustainable development. (Photo courtesy Shell UK)

They told Blair that the scheme should be broadened to include sectors, such as aviation, that are expected to generate an increasing share of overall emissions.

Alain Grisay, chief executive of F&C Asset Management, said, "China and India hold the key to future investment growth, but also have a crucial role to play in global efforts to reduce emissions. We need to enable their economies to participate more actively in the EU ETS so they can start to see a real economic benefit from deploying low-carbon technologies."

Development of new markets for low carbon technologies could provide significant economic opportunities for British business, the leaders said.

They highlighted carbon financing, hydrogen storage, and tidal and wave electricity generation as some of the technologies and services that could make the UK a world leader.

Neil Carson, chief executive of specialty chemicals company Johnson Matthey, said, “By putting in place strong policies to tackle climate change the UK can both show real leadership internationally and give UK businesses a first mover advantage in the new global markets for low-carbon technology.”

Blair said, "Business leadership is critical if we are going to accelerate action on climate change, both nationally and internationally. Businesses like yours can help develop new clean technologies and can encourage governments to take bolder policy steps."

Environment Secretary David Miliband (Photo courtesy UK Government)

Calls by business for tougher government targets to cut greenhouse gas emissions were welcomed by Friends of the Earth.

Friends of the Earth Director, Tony Juniper said, "This is exactly what is needed if we are to tackle climate change and ensure that the British economy reaps the rewards of going green."

"That is why Friends of the Earth's climate campaign, The Big Ask, is calling for the introduction of a climate law that will commit the government to making annual cuts in the UK's carbon dioxide emissions. Companies can also lead by example and take steps to cut emissions from their own operations," Juniper said.

Friends of the Earth called on the government to show it is serious about climate change by opting for tough caps on emissions from industry when it makes a decision on the second phase on the European Emissions Trading Scheme this week.

The seven areas in which the business leaders say they see potential for collaboration between business and government to increase action on climate change are:

• Strengthening markets for emissions reductions
• Support for early-stage low-carbon technologies
• Scaling-up low-carbon investment in rapidly developing economies
• Improving energy efficiency in the large commercial sector
• Stimulating consumer action on climate change
• Strengthening product and building regulation
• Reducing the impact of transport on climate change

Tesco announced May 26 that it will become the first UK retailer to move significant volumes of product from road to rail when it introduces purpose-built green trains.

The £3.2 million project will begin moving non-food products daily from the Midlands to its main Scottish distribution center in Livingston - saving an estimated 4.5 million road miles and around 6,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide a year. Carbon dioxide is the most prevalent greenhouse gas.

Two new state of the art green trains, designed to reduce noise and vibration, have been imported from Canada to make sure the goods are transported in the most environmentally friendly way possible.

In its Shell Sustainability Report 2005, released in May, Shell said the company's actions to manage greenhouse gas emissions "gathered pace."

The company cut its own emissions and stepped up research into capturing carbon dioxide to remove it from the atmosphere. Shell said it is focusing its alternative energy strategy on the most promising technologies biofuel and hydrogen for transport, and wind and thin-film solar for electricity generation.