WHY CLIMATE PROTECTION MAKES SENSE FOR THE PRIVATE SECTOR John Carey deftly captures the passing of climate leadership to the private sector (''Look who's thawing on global warming,'' Environment, Nov. 9). Many smart companies are behaving as if the U.S. Senate had already ratified the Kyoto Protocol. Why? Because saving energy costs less than buying it, often yielding return on investment of over 100% per year, and implementation obstacles can be turned into business opportunities. The more companies so behave, the more likely and less necessary ratification will become. Besides these immediate profits, companies can earn early carbon credits for later resale. International negotiations to set trading rules have been leapfrogged by a dozen traders making markets in greenhouse-gas abatement and sequestration. As these unofficial markets spread, the prices discovered in them--currently a hundredfold less than doomsayers' models predict--will discredit those models, substitute for fears of high costs the reality of lucrative profits, and further shift climate politics. No matter how the science turns out, the leaders in profitable climate protection will thus gain competitive advantage, and we'll all gain a stronger economy and a cleaner, safer world. Amory B. Lovins Senior Vice-President Rocky Mountain Institute Inc. Snowmass, Colo.

Updated Nov. 25, 1998 by bwwebmaster
Copyright 1998, by The McGraw-Hill Companies Inc. All rights reserved.
Terms of Use