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USCIB Letter to President Bush Proposing an
International Action Plan on Climate Change
April 11, 2001
The Honorable George W. Bush
President of the United States of America
The White House
Washington, DC 20500
Dear Mr. President:
We welcome your Administration’s timely initiative to conduct a formal interagency review of energy and climate change policies, in light of the resumption in July of negotiations under the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and its Kyoto Protocol. We share your concern over the risks of climate change, and believe that the U.S. should move quickly to chart a farsighted path forward within the UNFCCC process that will avoid the Kyoto Protocol’s unrealistic targets, timetables and lack of developing country participation.
We continue to support U.S. engagement in the UNFCCC process to demonstrate leadership by refocusing on the UNFCCC principles in order to devise a better way forward. Countries around the world are in the process of developing responses to climate change, and U.S. companies will be facing these measures. We therefore believe that developing an environmentally and economically sound U.S. government position that is action-oriented and reflects bottom line issues of domestic energy policy, competitiveness, trade, investment and technological innovation is of utmost importance in preparation for July’s resumption of negotiations, formally known as the 6th Conference of the Parties (COP6 bis).
USCIB works to promote an open system of world trade, finance and investment in which business can flourish and contribute to economic growth, human welfare and protection of the environment. Representing some 300 U.S. companies, professional services firms and associations, it is the American affiliate of the International Chamber of Commerce, the Business and Industry Advisory Committee to the OECD and the International Organization of Employers. USCIB’s Environment Committee and its Subcommittee on Climate Change work actively to communicate business views on climate questions to the U.S. Government, international organizations and foreign business communities.
USCIB believes that addressing the climate challenge will depend on a fully engaged business response on domestic and international fronts. U.S. businesses have already taken significant actions to reduce the potential climate impacts of their products and processes. To gain truly effective business participation, an inclusive economically efficient international framework, as well as balanced and reasonable domestic programs, should be developed with business as a partner. In the attached document, we propose elements of such a framework.
This international action-plan should focus on the long-term development, commercialization and global diffusion of advanced energy, carbon sequestration and adaptation technologies. It should take full advantage of appropriate and effective market incentives and mechanisms, rather than rigid, mandated caps, targets, timetables and command and control regulations. It should be flexible to respond to evolving science and technology.
We are well aware that launching such a process at COP6 bis will be challenging. Yet in spite of this, COP6 bis offers an opportunity to promote truly effective international cooperation to address the long-term greenhouse gas emissions challenge with minimal economic hardship, competitiveness concerns, trade tensions and higher energy costs. To do so, the Administration should:
- consult with and involve government, academic, scientific, business and NGO experts with commercial, trade, investment, environmental, carbon sequestration and land-use expertise;
- continue to work closely with "umbrella group" countries and other cooperative nations; and
- consult and work with other cooperative Annex I countries.
USCIB is prepared to support your Administration’s leadership and efforts to achieve a realistic, cost-effective solution to the climate change issue. USCIB members look forward to working with you and your Administration on both a long-term strategy and the immediate actions to ensure the success of that strategy.
Sincerely,
Thomas M.T. Niles
President
Cc: The Honorable Colin Powell
The Honorable Paul O’Neill
The Honorable Robert B. Zoellick
The Honorable Gail Norton
The Honorable Spencer Abraham
The Honorable Christine Todd Whitman
Attachment
ELEMENTS FOR AN INTERNATIONAL ACTION PLAN UNDER THE UNFCCC
An international course of action under the UNFCCC should formulate short and long-term actions to address the hundred-year challenge posed by climate change. A fresh U.S. government position could lay the foundation for an effective international solution. The objectives of such an approach would be to:
- Deal with the full basket of greenhouse gases and the full range of legitimate sequestration options;
- Ensure country flexibility to choose the most appropriate path to pursue emissions reductions;
- Enable market flexibility to facilitate capital moving to least-cost options for improvement; and
- Support development, evolution, commercialization, and dissemination of existing and new cutting-edge technologies worldwide.
Such a UNFCCC-based approach would:
· Follow a comprehensive approach that includes all sources and sinks and that does not single out individual gases;
· Maintain maximum national flexibility within a realistic compliance regime that is not punitive and recognizes national sovereignty;
· Permit unconstrained use and full fungibility of appropriate flexible trading and market-based mechanisms, without caps or taxes, with the ability of business to participate;
· Enable technology innovation, dissemination, and cooperation, without technology constraints and trade barriers;
· Improve enabling frameworks in developing countries (markets, rule of law, property rights, energy supply and access);
· Strengthen the infrastructure of developing nations to deploy, manage, and maintain advanced mitigation, sequestration, and adaptation technologies;
· Focus on how to provide the commercial energy that developing countries need to prosper in an environmentally sound way;
· Encourage R&D on long-term technological options and appraise future role of nuclear and renewable energy options;
· Establish a detailed and realistic compliance regimen where enforcement and liability are well defined to ensure that private sector transactions undertaken in good faith are not unraveled because of a country’s non-compliance;
· Define a process to develop longer term objectives for all Parties;
· Encourage coordinated national, bilateral and regional efforts; and
· Promote voluntary business actions, information sharing and exchange of good practices.
USCIB Position on Climate Policy Mischaracterized
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