Global roundtable on climate change

The Path to Climate Sustainability:
A Joint Statement by the Global Roundtable on Climate Change
Personal Statements of Support
(alphabetical order by company/organization) “Climate change and air transport environmental issues have long been high on Air France’s agenda. Our company is committed to continuously improving its environmental performance in order to reconcile the growing demand for air transport with the need to protect the Earth's future. Therefore, Air France is proud to endorse ‘The Path to Climate Sustainability: A Joint Statement by The Global Roundtable on Climate Change.’" — Jacques Pichot, Executive Vice President, Air France General Secretary “Of course, addressing climate change involves risks and costs. But much greater is the risk of failing to act. I am convinced that we can build a global plan of action on climate change in ways that create more economic opportunities than risks. The work of the Global Roundtable on Climate Change is an excellent example of the type of effort needed to extend the climate change issue from one of talk to one of action. Though the challenge is significant, I believe we can all grow and prosper in a greenhouse gas-constrained world. Actually, I believe there is no other option.” — Alain Belda, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Alcoa "The insurance industry has always played a key role in helping business and society understand new risks. We provide an early warning, if you will. Allianz believes it is already seeing signs that climate change is a serious emerging risk, and we expect it to remain a top-tier issue for the insurance industry for many decades to come. I believe it is our responsibility to address and tackle this risk, making homes and businesses safer and more secure for our clients." — Clement Booth, Executive Board Member, Allianz SE “BASF is pleased to be a signatory to ‘The Path to Climate Sustainability: A Joint Statement by the Global Roundtable on Climate Change.’ BASF is proud of its worldwide environmental leadership and the actions the company has taken for sustainable climate protection. Since 1990 BASF has reduced significantly its global emissions of greenhouse gases from manufacturing. Our climate protection efforts also extend to the company's products with benefits ranging from reduced energy consumption through better insulation, to improved fuel efficiency via materials to make cars lighter and more durable. The statement is a comprehensive document that recognizes the necessity of realistic actions and market-based solutions for sustainable climate protection.” — Klaus Peter Loebbe, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, BASF Corporation "Covanta enthusiastically endorses the principles and findings of the Joint Statement. In particular we agree that waste-to-energy is a readily available and demonstrated technology that reduces the emission of greenhouse gases that cause global warming. We are proponents of a sustainable waste management approach that supports greater source reduction, recycling and generation of clean electricity from modern waste-to-energy facilities. These waste management practices will work together to reduce emissions of CO2 and methane, the primary man-made gases that are causing global warming." — Tony Orlando, Chief Executive Officer, Covanta “Climate change is a serious global issue that must be addressed through concerted global action. We believe that the science on climate change is sufficiently strong and the risks serious enough to merit a timely action. DuPont has been committed to greenhouse gas reduction in our own operations since 1991, and we have reduced our global greenhouse gas emissions by 72 percent, while avoiding energy costs of $3 billion. By 2015, we will further reduce our greenhouse gas emissions at least 15 percent from a base year of 2004. We are also committed to growing revenues from products that create energy efficiency and/or significant greenhouse gas emissions reductions for our customers.” — Linda Fisher, Vice President and Chief Sustainability Officer, DuPont “The Global Roundtable on Climate Change Statement reflects the growing number of industry leaders who have agreed to a strategic framework to address climate change, with the understanding that emission reduction initiatives are imperative for the environment and for their business. In addition to the risks presented by climate change, the report highlights opportunities which are created by emission reduction projects. Opportunities exist for the development of new technologies to reduce emissions and the trading of carbon offsets to finance projects, and comply with reduction initiatives. As a pioneer in the field of carbon offsets, EcoSecurities has been actively providing solutions to reduce greenhouse gas emissions through a wide range of projects, as well as assisting companies in meeting their compliance targets.” — Bruce Usher, Chief Executive Officer, EcoSecurities “Exelon is pleased to support another voice calling for urgent action to address climate change. Exelon has already taken voluntary action to reduce our own greenhouse gas emissions, setting a voluntary goal of reducing our emissions by 8 percent from 2001 levels by 2008. We are also actively advocating the passage of mandatory limits at the federal level. The Joint Statement of the Global Roundtable on Climate Change details many of the same principles that Exelon has endorsed such as the need for a market-based carbon price signal, enhanced energy efficiency and increased technology development. We are hopeful that policymakers will respond to this call to action.” — Helen Howes, Vice President, Environment, Health and Safety, Exelon Corporation “Solutions to climate change go well beyond our industry and our nation’s borders. We are delighted to be part of this positive collaboration supporting efforts to mitigate climate change risks and impacts while also meeting the need for energy and economic growth. As the world leader in renewable energy and the nation's leading utility in energy conservation programs, FPL Group knows how important it is to balance the need to provide reliable, low-cost power with the desire to minimize our impact to the environment.” — Lew Hay, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, FPL Group ”Global businesses are assuming their just place as catalysts for action on climate change. But action by business alone is not enough. While we believe that applying technology against problems will create positive business opportunities that can result in positive change, national, state and local governments, academia and other non-governmental organizations must step forward with equal force. The Global Roundtable is an excellent venue focused on such a positive, proactive approach.” — Jeffrey Immelt, Chief Executive Officer, General Electric "Climate change is no fiction. We must ensure that we are able to develop the necessary technologies that will allow a sustainable and environmentally friendly future for the generations to come. In this context, renewable energy is a must, and Iberdrola, as the world leader in wind, firmly endorses the statement of the Global Roundtable on Climate Change." — José Luís del Valle, Chief Strategy and Development Officer, Iberdrola “Climate change depends on adopting new and sustainable energy strategies including dissemination of knowledge and information to the users’ community at large. Long-term success requires national and international multi-disciplinary concerted efforts. All the efforts must be based upon state-of-the-art science at all time. This is exactly what MEDIAS-France has been involved with, during at least the past five years, through the management of the national program: ‘Gestion des Impacts du Changement Climatique’ or GICC from the ‘Ministère de l’Ecologie et du Développement Durable’ or MEDD. MEDIAS-France is also contributing to the associated Capacity Building efforts at the Mediterranean and African levels… I must say that it is with great pleasure and honor that we join our signature to the Joint Statement released by the Global Roundtable on Climate Change. In the meantime we will continue to participate in the public awareness of climate change risks and solutions and the construction of metadata-bases and climate indices in order to mitigate and adapt to anthropogenic climate change.” — Dr. Patrick Van Grunderbeeck, Director, MEDIAS-France "Things are really moving along now. I was very glad to sign the declaration. Munich Re and its experts have been drawing attention to man-made climate change and its effects since 1973. In the long term, global warming will lead to a further increase in weather-related natural catastrophes, the financial impact of which will have to be borne by insurers and the public. Rapid international action is called for, and the GROCC declaration is intended to provide an impulse.” — Torsten Jeworrek, Board Member, Munich Re “Given the complexity and enormity of the climate change challenge, initiatives like the Global Roundtable on Climate Change can play an important role in advancing our understanding of the need and direction for collective action, but the key word is action. We need to move from words to action as soon as possible.” — David Crane, President and Chief Executive Officer, NRG Energy, Inc. “For twenty years we have worked to conserve forestlands and ensure sustainable livelihoods. We are thrilled to be a part of the Global Roundtable on Climate Change, and bring this work to bear on one of the most pressing issues of our day.” —Tensie Whelan, Executive Director, Rainforest Alliance "Environmental conservation is the most pressing issue mankind faces today. We must all take action now to preserve the earth for tomorrow." — Masamitsu Sakurai, President and Chief Executive Officer, Ricoh Company, Ltd. “Climate change is a very real danger facing the world today. We hope this statement will help people to recognize the dangers inherent in climate change and encourage governments worldwide to develop effective policies to address it. We are greatly concerned by the trend towards global warming, and we will continue to engage with both private and public institutions to raise awareness of this risk. We are already quite active with governments and universities within China on this endeavor.” — Dr. Zhengrong Shi, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Suntech Power “The UCG Partnership fully endorses this significant contribution to major climate change issues.” — Rohan Courtney, Director, UCG Partnership “The Global Roundtable on Climate Change is one of today’s most important global initiatives. It stands apart because its representatives include some of the largest and most influential companies and institutions in the world across a diverse landscape of business, social and environmental interests. US Renewables Group is pleased to stand alongside our fellow roundtable members to make the Joint Statement and support the Global Roundtable on Climate Change in its effort to develop scientific, technological, and economic outcomes that are critical to the management of climate change.” — Thomas King, Managing Director, U.S. Renewables Group "We have unquestionably reached scientific critical mass, so the question before us is how to move the world’s largest economies forward to reach political critical mass to curb greenhouse gas emissions. Our Global Roundtable on Climate Change Statement is a vital tool to help all nations shape sound public climate change policy, and, as a participant in the Roundtable, I am acting as a conduit for getting the Joint Statement before the U.S. Congress to assist it in coalescing around and adopting scientifically informed and cost effective targets to reduce U.S. greenhouse gas emissions. The U.S. must engage with a significant level of commitment so that the world’s largest emerging economies will participate in adopting a global strategy." — Olympia J. Snowe, U.S. Senator for Maine “Instead of being pulled by society, business should be pushing and in a positive way integrate climate change issues into the world of markets and trade on a global scale. The active protection of our climate is no utopia—it is possible with the technology we now have at our disposal, and this technology must be further improved. One absolutely vital precondition is that we put a system in place that leads to a global price on the emissions of greenhouse gases.” — Lars G. Josefsson, President and Chief Executive Officer, Vattenfall AB “If we are to be able to address the greenhouse effect, those of us in the transport industry in particular face major challenges. We know that we are part of the problem, but we are also convinced that we are part of the solution. Since the beginning of the 1970s, Volvo has cited environmental care as one of its core values, and as one of the world’s leading manufacturers of trucks, buses and construction equipment, Volvo is investing heavily in developing the technology that will resolve the problem of greenhouse gas emissions from transports. This involves everything from carbon-dioxide-free automotive plants to advanced hybrid technology for heavy vehicles and engines that can burn a wide range of alternative fuels. In addition to our own national efforts, a collective global initiative and constructive coordination among business, the academic sphere, NGOs and politicians is required. The Global Roundtable on Climate Change, with Professor Jeffrey Sachs as Chairman, is exactly the type of initiative in which Volvo wants to participate.” — Leif Johansson, Chief Executive Officer, Volvo Group “The melting ice-caps of Mount Kirinyaga and Mount Kilimanjaro— both visible from Nairobi on clear days—are telling us that rising temperatures will cause critical water shortages and destroy the web of life that is so critical for the survival of the poor and marginalized. We have identified poverty as a priority of development work; we learn that the fight against poverty needs to include climate change and violence… The situation is more critical than we tend to acknowledge: Life itself is at stake. We need to respond to this challenge together with all our imagination, capacity to reflect and to act, and all the resources available to us.” — Sam Kabia, General Secretary, World Council of Churches

Source: http://www.landsvirkjun.is/media/2007/grocc_quote_pages_feb_07.pdf