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3C Initiative Unites Big Companies to Combat Climate Change

A group of large companies meeting here last week has formed a new group aimed at developing an effective global climate protection policy for the period following the expiration of the Kyoto Protocol in 2013. Read More

A group of large companies meeting here last week has formed a new group aimed at developing an effective global climate protection policy for the period following the expiration of the Kyoto Protocol in 2013.

Combat Climate Change, also known as the 3C Initiative, began its life with 18 major corporate members, many from the energy sector, including both power companies (Duke Energy, Endesa, Eskom, PG&E, Suez, Vattenfall) and manufacturers of power-generating equipment (ABB, Alstom, GE, Siemens). The group has issued an “urgent request to the global community and all its representatives” to join in.

The goal, says 3C, is “to underline the need for urgent action by the global community and to influence the post-Kyoto process by demanding a global framework supporting a market-based solution to the climate change issue. This can be achieved by getting as many companies as possible aboard and by getting our common platform well known and well understood.”

The 3C group has rooted its approach in a report published last year by the Swedish energy company Vattenfall, which is coordinating the 3C Initiative. The Vattenfall report (Download – PDF) outlines an “adaptive burden-sharing model” for addressing climate change.

The model, according to the report, “The model is based on the assumption that an overwhelming majority of all countries commit to participate in the system given that they will only face restrictions once the country is wealthy enough in relative terms. The long-term predictability and the flexibility needed for economic growth can thereby be sustained. Most important is that we start now by forming a burden-sharing model built on commitments to long-term reductions.”

The group is actively seeking additional members. Companies agreeing to join the initiative agree “to take responsibility to combat global climate change and prepare to take action now and to urge for the support of the global community to create incentives for commercial solutions, technological development and market-based investments,” according to the group’s Web site.

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