As world's view of Washington worsens, corporate America pushes White House to tackle climate change

A Globescan/BBC/PIPA global opinion poll [*.pdf] shows that the world's view of American leadership is going from bad to worse. Some 60 to 80% of the 26,000 people questioned in 25 countries now disapprove of the way Washington deals with major international issues. Obvious geopolitical failures (Iraq, the Israelo-Palestinian conflict and the crisis in Lebanon, nuclear proliferation) are the main cause. The Globescan survey also included a series of questions on climate change, the most pressing and serious of global challenges. And once again, the participants think the U.S. is out of sync with reality and should do much more to combat global warming. After all, the U.S. is the world's largest polluter and responsible for the largest share of greenhouse gas emissions.

Surprisingly, on the latter issue, major forces within the U.S. now seem to agree with world opinion. On the eve of President George W. Bush's State of the Union address, a new alliance of NGOs and major US corporations has launched an appeal for mandatory action to reduce greenhouse gases.

The corporations (including DuPont, BP, GE, Alcoa and others) and four environmental groups (Environmental Defense, Natural Resources Defense Council, Pew Center on Global Climate Change and the World Resources Institute) presented the new US Climate Change Action Partnership (USCAP) on 22 January 2007. In its report, "A call for action" [*.pdf] the USCAP urges the federal US government to come up with strong legislation to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions. The alliance proposes to set mandatory caps on emissions with the aim of reducing them by 30% over the next 15 years.

President Bush is not expected to give in to this new climate-change lobbying when he gives his annual State of the Union speech on 23 January. According to US media, he will put energy security once more at the heart of his policies and embrace ethanol as the miracle solution to fight America's energy dependency.

Since the president rejected the Kyoto Protocol in 2001, the US has come to be seen by many Europeans as the leader of the "axis of climate-change evil". With the US on the sidelines, the European Union has claimed world leadership in efforts to combat global warming and turned its greenhouse-gas emissions trading scheme - despite all its weaknesses - into a model solution:
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But, under pressure from European industry's fears of loss of competitiveness, the EU is struggling with its leadership role. Although the Commission promised unilateral emission reductions of 20% by 2020 in its recent energy-climate change package, it has difficulties finding a compromise between its climate change strategy and its economic growth and competitiveness (Lisbon Agenda) objectives, once more precise policies are on the table, as suggested by the Commission's internal fighting over CO2 emissions from passenger cars. A proposal to replace the current voluntary agreement with car producers and introduce binding legislative targets was postponed on 23 January 2007 due to heavy lobbying from industry and the Commission's Enterprise directorate.

In the meantime, US energy ideology is undergoing a climate-change shift, with only the federal government still hesitant to make a similar U-turn. In California, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has become the champion of climate-change activists, introducing measures for a 25% reduction of emissions by 2020 and a low-carbon standard for automotive fuels.

The new Democrats majority in the US Congress has also put climate change high on its agenda. In its first 100 hours, House speaker Nancy Pelosi announced the establishment of a new select committee on climate change and introduced legislation on energy security. In the US Senate, Republican senator and possible 2008 presidential candidate John McCain is inviting a group of more than 80 global legislators to Washington to discuss climate change.

The new USCAP coalition is a clear signal that big business in the US has woken up to the climate-change issue and could have a major influence on the next presidential election campaign.

More information:
European Commission, Directorate-General of the Environment: Climate Change

United States Climate Action Partnership (USCAP): Press release "Major businesses and environmental leaders unite to call for swift action on global climate change" - Jan. 22, 2007

United States Climate Action Partnership (USCAP): USCAP web site

L'Expansion: Climat : des multinationales font pression sur Bush, Jan. 22, 2007

BBC News: Bush 'must fight climate change' - Jan. 22, 2007

Bloomberg: Bush rejects carbon cap; will stress alternative fuel, Jan. 22, 2007

On the Globescan poll:
BBC News: View of US's global role 'worse' - Jan. 23, 2007

Globescan: World View of US Role Goes From Bad to Worse - Jan 23, 2007.