A group of over 100 business leaders issued a call for broad international action to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. The CEO Climate Policy Recommendations to G8 Leaders was delivered to Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda in anticipation of next month’s G8 meetings in Japan.

The CEO group recognizes the threat posed by climate change and calls for immediate action to mitigate the risks posed to both the physical and business environments. These leaders request action from “all major economies . . . including the United States, China and India.” They pledge to work with governments under the Bali Action Plan to negotiate, over the next 18 months, a successor agreement to the Kyoto Protocol.

The group recognizes that “the rapid shift to a low-carbon economy that lies ahead has the potential to drive forward the next chapter of technological innovation.” Developing economies have the most to gain by engaging in the international process because - if designed properly - it “enables the emergence of an international market for carbon [that] can help catalyse the required flows of private capital and clean energy technology to developing nations in the most innovative, entrepreneurial and cost-effective way.”

The report does not break any new ground, but serves an important purpose in focusing world attention on the need to reach a new climate agreement by the end of 2009. The CEO group is noteworthy because its members represent companies based in over a dozen countries, including India, South Africa, and Russia, and covers a broad array of industries, including manufacturing, mining, energy production, information technology, finance and insurance, and consumer goods.

The business community’s increase attention on climate change bodes well for reaching a new international agreement. The companies in the report yield significant political influence across the globe, and will help pressure governments to make the painful concessions necessary to reduce global GHG emissions over the coming decades.

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