WBCSD plots carbon path to 2050

London, 29 March: The World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) has called for "decisive, concerted and sustained actions between governments, businesses and consumers" to tackle climate change.

The call comes in a report, Policy Directions to 2050, from the WBCSD, a business organisation of some 190 multinational companies. The report "identifies policy options to sustain economic growth while transforming the ways we access, produce and consume energy".

WBCSD president Björn Stigson said: "Governments must start building the future policy frameworks, and it is necessary for us in business to begin to respond to those policies in time to meet the future emission reduction targets. We can not continue the 'you first' mentality. We need leadership and action by both governments and business."

The report calls for the development and deployment of low-carbon technologies through partnerships and incentives and an approach to mitigate long-term market risk and deliver secure benefits for large-scale, low-carbon projects. It suggests four policy priorities:

1. A quantifiable, long-term (50 year), global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions pathway, to be decided by 2010;

 

2. Ensuring continuity in carbon targets and markets after 2012, when the Kyoto Protocol expires, using the existing international framework as a basis, and modifying it to build up from local, national, sector or regional programmes;

 

3. Building robust national programmes, in support of the international pathway, including on energy efficiency, increasing the use of alternative transport fuels, boosting consumer awareness and incentives for low-carbon products, services and lifestyles; and

 

4. Developing and commercialising a number of low- and zero-GHG technologies. These will require supporting policies and programmes to address technical and cost challenges.

The November 2006 issue of Environmental Finance magazine carried an article by Adam Kirkman of the WBCSD and David Hone of Shell International, based on an early draft of the report (see pages S21-S23).