January 19, 2007 - After a year of collaboration and dialogue, our organizations have arrived at a set of principles and policy recommendations to address global warming. Ours is a unique and diverse group, which is united in the belief that we can, and must, take prompt action to establish a coordinated, economy-wide, market-driven approach to climate protection.

 

The members of the United States Climate Action Partnership (USCAP) are committed to action and believe that properly constructed policy can be economically viable, environmentally responsible, and politically achievable. Swift legislative action on our proposal would encourage innovation and provide needed U.S. leadership on this global challenge.

 

Our goal is to help our nation create public policy that would act aggressively and sustainably to slow, stop and reverse the growth of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.

 

Toward this end, USCAP urges lawmakers to enact a policy framework for mandatory reductions of GHG emissions from major emitting sectors, including large stationary sources, transportation, and energy use in commercial and residential buildings. The cornerstone of this approach would be a cap-and-trade program. The environmental goal is to reduce global atmospheric GHG concentrations to a level that minimizes large-scale adverse impacts to humans and the natural environment. The group recommends Congress provide leadership and establish short- and mid-term emission reduction targets; a national program to accelerate technology research, development and deployment; and approaches to encourage action by other countries, including those in the developing world, as ultimately the solution must be global.

 

These are complicated problems. There must be a reasoned and serious debate about the solutions. But debate cannot substitute for action. We hope that the consensus we have reached through our unique partnership provides further impetus toward the creation of sensible and effective policies to address global climate change.

 

USCAP expects to issue its full report on Monday. In the interim, there have been articles containing incorrect and incomplete information in describing the group’s position on the construction of conventional coal-burning plants. We believe this should be corrected now. The USCAP principles encourage policies to speed the transition to low- and zero emission stationary sources and strongly discourage further construction of stationary sources that cannot easily capture CO2 emissions. This is one of an integrated set of principles and recommendations the group has proposed, and should not be considered in isolation. Other principles and recommendations encourage policies that seek to mitigate economic transition costs and state that climate change should be addressed in a highly cost-effective manner that allows for economic growth in both the developed world and emerging economies.

 

USCAP Consists of Market Leaders:
Alcoa | BP America | Caterpillar | Duke Energy | DuPont | FPL Group | General Electric | Lehman Brothers | PG&E | PNM Resources

 

And Leading NGO’s:
Environmental Defense | Natural Resources Defense Council | Pew Center on Global Climate Change | World Resources Institute.