Five environmental stories of note from the past week:
EPA ordered attorneys to remove video criticizing climate bill
U.N. official says climate deal could be put off
Green jobs aren’t ready to lead New England Economy
Ford’s fuel-efficient engine draws interest, revenue
Low-emission technologies need assist from policymakers
Five environmental stories of note from the past week:
Lawmakers oppose stimulus funds for joint Texas-China project
World’s falling fertility rates approach a break-even point
Russia still dragging its feet on climate change
Climate-agreement deadline may slip to end of 2010
Mass-market U.N. carbon scheme finds favor in India
Maurice Strong, Secretary General of the 1992 Rio Earth Summit, liked to joke that when world leaders gather for a major international convocation only two outcomes are possible: success . . . and real success. With the Obama Administration’s negotiating team likely to go to Copenhagen in December empty-handed, the prospects for real success in tackling climate change this year are dimming.
The United States is in the driver’s seat in this negotiation. In particular, if the US negotiators were to arrive in Copenhagen with a commitment to reduce greenhouse gas emissions locked in through legislation, then other nations, including the major developing countries such as China and India, would find themselves pressed to commit to emissions controls as well.
Newsweek has just released its first corporate Green Rankings “scoring” 500 large American companies on their performance in responding to pollution control and natural resource management challenges. This ranking represents another step towards a more transparent world where companies know that their environmental performance is being scrutinized.
I am especially pleased to see the Newsweek rankings as well as the Carbon Disclosure Project’s latest corporate greenhouse gas emissions scorecard since the Yale Center for Environmental Law and Policy has been promoting data-driven, analytically rigorous analysis of “green” performance for more than a decade.
The Newsweek project (on which I was an advisor) compiles an impressive range of information, gathered by three of the country’s top environmental research firms, about corporate environmental results and practices. Each company’s “Green Score” reflects three components: (1) Environmental Impact, which draws from quantitative measures and modeled results covering a range of issues including greenhouse gas emissions, air pollution and water use; (2) Green Policies, which examines corporate governance and practices related to the environment; and (3) Environmental Reputation, which reflects survey data on attitudes from corporate and environmental experts.
Having a more fact-based and empirical picture of which companies are doing well – and which less so – with regard to environmental management will be of interest to a variety of stakeholders, including the communities where these companies operate as well as their customers, suppliers, and employees. Perhaps most importantly, environmental performance in general and “carbon exposure” in particular are increasingly of interest to those in the capital markets. As Congress continues to discuss climate legislation, and as the prospect of carbon charges in one form or another looms, investors have begun to ask which companies have been attentive to climate change and will therefore be advantaged in a carbon-constrained world. Likewise, they want to know which companies and industries will be relatively more burdened. The Carbon Disclosure Project’s rankings are particularly relevant in this regard.
In some important respects, the Green Rankings (and the CDP report) raise more questions than answers. But this is to be expected in a world of haphazard environmental data. Indeed, the index methodologies will be refined in the years ahead – and the picture painted will be sharpened.
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