In the end, last week’s Capitol Hill photo-op for the green side turned out to be a broad, nationwide public relations/lobbying effort to urge federal powers in Washington, DC, to frame a national response to global warming. Twelve states, 20 financial services firms, and a dozen each foundations and business leaders comprised 65 signatories to a “call to action” in the nation’s capital.

Among the steps being urged are an expansion of financial materiality reporting requirements to include companies’ annual greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and the establishment of mandatory GHG emission limits together with a market-based trading system of emissions credits.

“Investors and companies are asking Washington, DC, to set a clear policy direction to address the risks of climate change,” said Mindy Lubber, president of Ceres, a private-sector nonprofit running the Investor Network on Climate Risk. “The greatest climate risk facing investors and business is the uncertainty caused by the absence of U.S. policy [on global warming].”

As usual, California tried to lead the broad coalition, if not in sheer numbers of representatives, in numbers of press announcements. Following the action in the capital, California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger last Tuesday applauded President Bush for his proposed Alternative Fuel Standard Act, but also chided the administration to adopt a “long-sighted plan that combats global warming, encourages market-based economic growth, and reduces our country’s dependence on oil.”

In a prepared statement that warned the administration against selecting one technology to support, Schwarzenegger encouraged the Bush administration and Congress “to pass aggressive legislation that addresses this country’s energy needs realistically and comprehensively.”

Later in the week, one of the major California utilities, Sempra Energy’s San Diego Gas and Electric Co., issued a media announcement on how it has successfully certified its 2005 GHG emissions inventory with the California Climate Action Registry, which it emphasized the utility had joined four years ago. It is now a “Climate Action Leader” in the registry, which is a growing organization for public and private entities to voluntarily divulge their annual GHG emissions.

In the larger national effort in Washington, DC, earlier in the week, among the representatives signing the petition to Congress and the White House were the CEOs of Aloca, Inc., BP America, Consolidated Edison Inc., Dupont, Exelon Corp., Green Mountain Coffee, Green Mountain Power, Interface Inc., National Grid, PG&E Corp., Sun Microsystems, Inc. and Ted Turner, of Turner Enterprises.

Institutional investor holdings totaling more than $4 trillion were represented by the investors in the consortium.

The specifics of the call to Congress and the White House are (see Power Market Today, March 20):

Among the dozen states represented, Connecticut’s Treasurer Denise Nappier said the state’s pension funds and other institutional investors expect what she called “a thorough analysis of all significant business liabilities {including environmental baggage].

“Leading companies have already made progress working to not only assess and report the risks posed by climate change, but to also set in place strategic plans to foster future growth and success,” Nappier said. “In the face of mounting evidence demonstrating the economic implications of climate change, we strongly urge the [federal] SEC [Securities and Exchange Commission] to acknowledge it as a material consideration and require all companies to disclose its impact to shareholders.”

While investors, businesses, states and local government for the most part have turned the corner on addressing GHG emissions and the broad implications of global warming, they cannot make a global impact without national policies and programs, the coalition members stressed.

“States and local governments, no matter how aggressive, can only do so much,” said California Treasurer Bill Lockyer. “To effectively combat global warming, we need action on a national scale.”

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