Large Firms Agree Carbon Emissions Must Be Cut

By GUY CHAZAN
COPENHAGEN -- Efforts to secure a new United Nations deal on climate change got a boost Tuesday when around 500 business leaders issued a call for greenhouse-gas emissions to be halved by 2050.
But a separate meeting in Paris of some of the countries responsible for the most carbon pollution made little progress on what targets to set -- showing how difficult it will be to clinch an agreement that both developed nations like the U.S. and emerging economies like China will be prepared to sign on to.
After the Paris meeting of the Major Economies Forum, which brought together 17 countries that produce four-fifths of global carbon emissions, French Environment Minister Jean-Louis Borloo said the U.S. had backpedaled on promises to make deep cuts in its carbon output. "We want to tell them, 'Yes you can,' you can do a lot more," he said.
In Copenhagen, chief executives of such companies as BP PLC, PepsiCo Inc. and Duke Energy Corp. called for an "immediate and substantial change" in the trend of rising global greenhouse-gas emissions, which they said must peak and begin to fall within the next decade and be reduced by at least half of their 1990 levels by 2050.
In a statement dubbed the "Copenhagen Call," business leaders said developed economies should make the deepest cuts initially, though all nations would be required to play a part. A global deal would benefit business by helping to establish a "more predictable framework for companies to plan and invest," the statement said.
Some speakers in Copenhagen said the Obama administration's position on climate change had strengthened chances of a global deal at a U.N. gathering in December, also to be held in Copenhagen, that is aimed at crafting a successor to the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, which expires in 2012. The global economic crisis also is helping, because many countries, including the U.S., are pouring money into renewables and other low-carbon technologies as part of their stimulus packages.
"I see the stars aligning," said James Rogers, CEO of Charlotte, N.C.-based electricity provider Duke Energy. "The time when the economy is in trouble is the best time to do something like this, because economy trumps theology."
Some said the final statement didn't go far enough. Jeremy Hobbs, executive director of charity Oxfam International, said it was "only a tiny step in pushing for the right political recipe when it could have been a giant stride."
The "Copenhagen Call" demanded an international market in carbon to set a stable price -- seen as a key factor in mobilizing funds for new technologies to help reduce carbon emissions.
Write to Guy Chazan at guy.chazan@wsj.com