Business calls for carbon pricing and climate action ahead of Paris summit

The big annual climate negotiations start in Paris next week (COP21), and the stakes are high. We're overdue on initiating strong, international climate policy, and now we have to play catch up.

There are many strong statements of support, all of which should give negotiators cover in creating an ambitious deal.  Here are a few recent statements:

• CEOs of 78 major firms call for carbon pricing COP21 deal: organized by the World Economic Forum and has a combined annual turnover of $2.1 trillion
  
• CEOs of 10 food and beverage companies call for a "sound agreement to affect real change": organized by Ceres' "Accelerating Change, food and beverage leaders" initiative.
  
• 6 major banks call for a "strong global climate agreement": organized by Ceres
  
• 81 companies sign the American Business Act on Climate pledge: organized by the White House, representing companies with combined market cap of over $5 trillion.
  
• Over 400 investors have signed the Global Investor Statement on Climate Change (GISCC): organized by the Investor Network on Climate Risk (INCR), signatories represent over $24 trillion in assets.
  
• Over 50 companies have signed the Building and Real Estate Climate Declaration, calling on global leaders to "realize the opportunity of the low-carbon economy": organized by the US Green Building Council, the Carbon Leadership Forum, and Ceres.
  
• Climate Declaration: organized by Ceres, signed by more than 1,000 companies. 

What's less clear is even with all of these statement of support from companies, how effectively they are supporting the political process to put a price on carbon. There is still a lot of false rhetoric about how a price on carbon will hurt the economy, despite the evidence to contrary; and those making such claims often claim to represent the 'business sector'.  In addition to important statements like these, we need to see more companies advancing their enlightened self-interest in the political arena by actively and aggressively lobbying for a price on carbon.

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DISRUPTION: Climate. Change.

A new film on the climate change movement will be released next week.  The trailer below gives a sneak peak of what looks like a powerful telling of the story of how the demands for action on climate change have coalesced into a social movement that recognizes this is a social justice issue, not just an environmental issue.

It's timed for release before what will be the largest climate march in history -- the People's Climate March -- taking place Sunday, September 21, in New York City (at 11:30, starting at Columbus Circle).

There will be a host of events and actions taking place in late September in NYC around the UN Climate Summit, which is an attempt to focus attention and engage as part of the run up to the pivotal climate negotiations in Paris in 2015.

It will be an interesting few months in the climate action world, and I'm curious to see how it will play out with the backdrop of mid-term elections and hurricane season here in the US.



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You're already paying for carbon pollution

Below is a great video from The Climate Reality Project about the price of carbon -- explaining why we need a price on carbon.  The consensus is finally building among the economists, politicians, and the public that putting a price on carbon is the most effective and efficient way to minimize the damage of climate disruption. 

The EPA's recently announced rules limiting carbon from existing power plants (The Clean Power Plan) is an important step, and one that will help pave the way for a price on carbon.  It's design of allowing states to determine how to meet the rules is the right way to go, and I expect it will result in more states instituting a price on carbon -- either by joining RGGI, or connecting with California or the Western Climate Initiative, or instituting their own pricing schemes, like cap & trade or cap & dividend, or a simple carbon tax like British Columbia.

These state-level precedents are what we need in order to get more comprehensive federal legislation, and from there a meaningful international climate agreement, with the US leading the way.  Given the recent results of the National Climate Assessment (and many other reports and studies) this needs to happen fast enough for an agreement in Paris in 2015 that goes into effect by 2020. 

Check out the video and share.  To get this done we need as many people as possible on board and letting their elected officials know they support a more effective and efficient way of paying for carbon pollution -- through a price on carbon.  Obama made it clear in this recent interview with Tom Friedman -- we need a price on carbon, we're not going to burn all of the carbon in the ground, and to enable a smooth ramp to clean energy, we need broad public support. Quoting Lincoln, he said: ‘With public opinion there’s nothing I cannot do, and without public opinion there’s nothing I can get done.’ As this piece in the NYT today shows, leadership on climate is finally becoming a political winner, and we need to keep it that way.


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