Obama's Climate Push Plays Catch-up With Corporate Lobbyists

Some of the world's top executives have backed the White House goals and are expected to help press for a meaningful outcome in Copenhagen

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By Kim Chipman and Todd White

(Bloomberg)—Now that U.S. President Barack Obama has given fresh impetus to climate-change negotiations in Copenhagen, corporate leaders supporting an agreement to control greenhouse-gas emissions are pressing anew for action.

Two weeks of talks among 192 nations open today in the Danish capital, and Obama's decision to show up on the final day helps ensure "an ambitious outcome," United Nations climate chief Yvo de Boer told reporters in Copenhagen yesterday.

The International Energy Agency, a trade group for the U.S. and 27 more oil-consuming nations, and companies from Allianz SE to Coca-Cola Co. (KO) say envoys can agree to halt the growth of emissions within 10 years and keep global temperatures from rising by more than 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit).

"We need a signal at Copenhagen to cap emissions by 2020 and a 2-degree scenario," Fatih Birol, chief economist for the agency, said in a phone interview. "All the measures we suggest will bring energy security, because we'll use less oil" and more clean energy, said Birol, who plans to visit Copenhagen for the second of the two weeks of talks.

World leaders already have said the talks will fail to reach the original goal of completing a treaty, a deadline moved to next year. While Obama and de Boer didn't specify how much can be achieved in Copenhagen, company executives and lobbyists say they want quantifiable goals that have been sought for years by environmentalists and scientific groups.

GE, HSBC, Nike

Supporters of the temperature and 2020 targets include 850 business leaders who signed this year what's called the Copenhagen communiqué, a project by the University of Cambridge in the U.K. Signatories include General Electric (GE) Co. Chief Executive Officer Jeffrey Immelt, Coca-Cola CEO Muhtar Kent, BP (BP) Plc CEO Tony Hayward, HSBC (HBC) Holdings Plc Chairman Stephen Green, Nestle SA CEO Paul Bulcke and Nike Inc. (NKE) CEO Mark Parker.

Executives from many of these companies are joining the 15,000 delegates who will come to the city's Bella convention center today for talks through Dec. 18.

White House press secretary Robert Gibbs announced on Dec. 4 that Obama will show up for the conclusion of the talks, when most of the 100 or so heads of government will arrive and help guide final decisions. Earlier Obama had planned to stop by on Dec. 9. "There is progress toward a meaningful Copenhagen accord," Gibbs said.

Obama found after speaking with UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown and other leaders that there's an "emerging consensus" to provide $10 billion a year by 2012 to help poor countries deal with global warming.

'Fair Share'

"The United States will pay its fair share of that amount and other countries will make substantial commitments as well," Gibbs said in the statement. The administration also believes longer-term financing should be considered in Denmark, he said.

Negotiators in the Danish capital must provide companies with the certainty they need to make annual investments that may rise to trillions of dollars, said John Hawksworth, chief of macroeconomics at PricewaterhouseCoopers in London. Businesses need to know the scale of planned carbon cuts in order to gauge how expensive tradable carbon allowances will become, he said.