Letter from USCIB President Thomas Niles

to the Financial Times on Climate Change

April 23, 2001

Letters to the Editor

Financial Times

1330 Avenue of the Americas

New York, NY  10019

Fax: (212) 641-6504

Sir:

You mischaracterize a recent statement by the United States Council for International Business on climate change (“Raising the temperature,” Comment & Analysis, April 18).

First, we welcomed President Bush’s decision to embark upon a major study assessing practical means to address the problems of climate change, not the decision to abandon the Kyoto Protocol.  Second, far from seeking to minimize the impact of global warming, our statement in fact called for renewed international action to move forward with climate negotiations.

Our members, who form a cross-section of U.S. industry, believe that governments must focus on the long-term development, commercialization and diffusion of advanced technologies to reduce and sequester carbon emissions.  An international agreement on climate should also seek to utilize market incentives and mechanisms, something the Kyoto approach does not sufficiently achieve, even after six “Conferences of the Parties.”

Pro-active reductions in emissions by many U.S. companies, as well as their continued development of new technologies to deal with greenhouse gases, are wholly compatible with this positive approach.   Business is more unified on these points than your article suggests.

Sincerely,

Thomas M.T. Niles

President, United States Council for International Business

1212 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY  10036

Tel: (212) 703-5055 (office) or (914) 713-0190 (home)

E-mail: tniles@uscib.org