Businesses, Environmentalists Call on Companies to Cut Emissions

By The Associated Press

TOKYO: Top-flight companies including Sony Corp. pledged Friday to cut their greenhouse gas emissions and promote a low-carbon lifestyle among customers, while endorsing a 50 percent cut in global emissions by 2050. The 12 corporations, members of a program with the WWF environmentalist group to reduce emissions at their own installations, urged the business world in a joint declaration to move faster to battle climate change.

"We have an obligation ... to help minimize our environmental impact and at the same time utilize our unique talents to help solve environmental problems," said Howard Stringer, Sony chairman and CEO. "That is why we decided to engage more of our peers," he told a conference at Sony headquarters in Tokyo. The other companies included Hewlett-Packard, Nokia Corp. and Nike.

Scientists estimate the world must keep average temperatures from rising more than 3.6 degrees above preindustrial levels to avert the more disastrous effects of global warming.

While much of the political debate surrounding climate change has focused on whether governments can agree on mandatory emission reduction targets, all parties generally agree that businesses have a major role to play in the effort.

Speakers on Friday said companies can cut emissions and boost profits at the same time, while positioning themselves to thrive in an eventual low-carbon economy. "There is no contradiction between growing economically and reducing your carbon footprint absolutely," said Oliver Rapf, of WWF International.

The declaration Friday called for total emissions of greenhouse gases blamed for global warming to peak in the next 10 to 15 years and then to decline after that, hitting a target of less than 50 percent of 2000 levels by mid-century.

The companies joining the declaration are among the 15 or so members of the WWF Climate Savers, which work with the environmentalist group to set targets for internal carbon dioxide emission cuts. Company leaders trumpeted the steps they've taken to reduce emissions, such as using cleaner fuels, improving building design, reorganizing their businesses and boosting the energy efficiency of their own products.

Rapf said members were on track to reduce their emissions by 13 million tons of carbon dioxide annually by 2010. Still, he acknowledged that was only a tiny percentage of the world annual total, which the U.S. Energy Information Administration estimates at 28 billion tons in 2005. "We're moving toward a carbon-constrained future, and this program prepares companies for this carbon-constrained future," he said.

Sony, for instance, joined the group in 2006 and set a target of cutting emissions by 7 percent by 2010 from 2000 levels. Stringer said the company had already exceeded that target by cutting annual emissions by 9 percent so far. Dennis Canavan, senior director of global energy for the New Brunswick, New Jersey-based Johnson & Johnson health care company, said his employer had reduced emissions by 11.5 percent from 1990 levels by 2005.

The company — which has not signed the joint declaration but says it plans to — has also invested $96 million in 49 renewable energy projects, earning a return of 16.3 percent. It has added 1,300 hybrid cars to its fleet. "We were pleased to find that there are many projects that still have very good financial returns," said Canavan.

To be continue in other article...

(Jakarta, Kamis 21 February 2008, 07.39 pagi)

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