The White House’s climate change announcement Monday is meant to place pressure on Republican lawmakers to support President Obama’s goal of hashing out a global deal on emission reductions later this year, business leaders say.
The White House announced Monday that it secured committments from 81 companies to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions and invest in clean energy. Many scientists blame the increase in manmade greenhouse gas emissions from burning fossil fuels for raising the Earth’s temperature, resulting in more severe weather and droughts.
The announcement was followed by a full day of meetings among the administration, businesses and environmental groups at the White House on ways to support a strong global deal in Paris in December.
“It’s an important signal to lawmakers” and the “right message to U.S. leaders and global negotiators,” said Anne Kelly, senior director at Ceres, a coalition that advocates environmental sustainability and represents many of the companies that signed onto Monday’s climate change pact with the administration.
“We stand with the president on any global deal,” Kelly said. She said the business sector is “doing the math” to address climate change, while the law and legislators are on the “lagging end.”
Kelly was responding to a question during an online forum conducted with Ceres and its members Monday: How does the administration’s announcement play into Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell’s message to foreign leaders not to believe anything the president commits to under a global climate treaty because he will scuttle it?
Kelly’s message to lawmakers shows that businesses are moving forward to address global emissions despite such statements by the GOP leadership or other policymakers, she said.
Melissa Lavinson, chief sustainability officer with large utility PG&E, said “a lot of action has taken place at the state and local level,” and that will influence how Congress eventually responds.
Laura Bishop, vice president with Best Buy, said “we are doing this regardless of where policymakers are.” Bishop said business is getting “ahead of this and hope that policymakers will go along.”
The White House announcement is meant to demonstrate support for reaching an international agreement at a United Nations climate change conference in Paris that starts Nov. 30. In recent days, many companies, including large energy companies such as Shell and BP, have come out in support of reaching a strong agreement in December.
McConnell and House Republicans are readying to take legislative action to counter the president’s climate push. Senate leaders say they are preparing a resolution of disapproval to undercut the centerpiece of the president’s clean energy agenda: emission rules for power plants called the Clean Power Plan. The power plant rules are expected to be published in the Federal Register this week. Once the rules are published, McConnell can initiate his plan.
