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Executives Call for Deep Emission Cuts to Combat Climate Change More than 300 corporate leaders are asking the Biden administration to nearly double the emission reduction targets set by the Obama administration. The smokestack of a coal-fired power plant in Independence, Mo., earlier this year. Some of the nation’s largest companies are calling for the United States to double its targets for cutting planet-warming emissions.Credit...Charlie Riedel/Associated Press WASHINGTON — More than 300 businesses, including Google, McDonalds and Walmart, are pushing the Biden administration to nearly double the United States’ target for cuts to planet-warming emissions ahead of an April 22 global summit on climate change. In a letter to President Biden released on Tuesday morning, chief executive officers from some of the nation’s largest companies will call on the administration to set a new Paris Agreement goal of slashing the nation’s carbon dioxide, methane and other planet-warming emissions at least 50 percent below 2005 levels by 2030. That is roughly what most major environmental groups want, and the corporate executives called the target “ambitious and attainable.” Former President Donald J. Trump pulled the United States out of the Paris Agreement, eradicating emissions reduction targets set by the Obama administration that many environmentalists had seen as too weak. President Obama had pledged to cut national emissions 26 percent to 28 percent below 2005 levels by 2025. With Mr. Biden promising to tackle climate change intensely, climate change activists are watching to see how much more ambitious his targets will be than those set when he was vice president. Mr. Biden, who returned the United States to the Paris Agreement on Inauguration Day, has said the United States will announce fresh targets for the Paris Agreement on or before a virtual summit of world leaders he is hosting around Earth Day next week. According to two administration officials familiar with the deliberations, the target is expected to be a range that will include a 50 percent reduction in emissions. Organizers of the business letter said they hoped such a message coming from the private sector — including electric utilities like Exelon and Pacific Gas & Electric, as well as dozens of companies based in Republican districts — would resonate strongly with Congress. Other signatories include Target, Verizon and Altria Group, the parent company of the tobacco giant Philip Morris USA, which was once considered a firm ally of the Republican Party, and Philip Morris International. The effort also underscores the delicate path corporate leaders are treading in the post-Trump era. Their decisions to break with Republicans on issues like voting rights and racial justice have rankled their traditional allies in the G.O.P. Pressing the Biden administration to aggressively combat climate change could further alienate Republicans, who have long fought emissions regulations as “job killers” that would make American business less competitive. “I think this signals a major shift in the corporate community’s understanding of the urgency of climate change as a systemic financial risk,” said Anne Kelly, vice president for government affairs at the sustainability nonprofit Ceres, which organized the letter. Republican lawmakers have given no indication they are likely to be swayed, but they framed their opposition as a defense of consumers, not businesses. ImageMr. Biden has said the United States will announce fresh targets for the Paris Agreement on or before a virtual summit of world leaders he is hosting around Earth Day later this month. Mr. Biden has said the United States will announce fresh targets for the Paris Agreement on or before a virtual summit of world leaders he is hosting around Earth Day later this month.Credit...Amr Alfiky/The New York Times “The Paris climate agreement will result in increased energy costs for Americans while Russia and China increase greenhouse gas emissions,” Senator John Barrasso of Wyoming said in a statement. He predicted whatever target Mr. Biden announces will be “punishing.” Patrick Flynn, vice president of sustainability for Salesforce, which signed on to the letter, said he hopes businesses will lobby Congress to support the Biden administration’s target. “We know it will create millions of jobs, we know it’s a good thing for the economy, and we know if we do it right we can do it in a way that leaves no one behind,” he said. Ralph Izzo, president and chairman of the Public Service Enterprise Group, a New Jersey-based energy company, said he is supporting the 50 percent target because he has seen the consequences of climate change in his state. “It’s critical that we take significant action against the threat,” he said. The corporate response is all the more remarkable because Mr. Biden’s plan for curbing climate change would be paid for in large part by raising corporate tax rates, a move sure to raise objections among at least some of the climate-conscious corporations. He also has called for a clean electricity standard and promised new regulations on the utility sector, automobile makers and oil and gas industries. Mr. Flynn said his company has supported tax increases in the past and called Mr. Biden’s $2 trillion infrastructure proposal “a good investment” for the long term. Other companies that signed on to the letter sidestepped questions about the tax plan. Ms. Kelley said she believes companies can “decouple” the commitments the United States needs to make to curb climate change with differences they may have with the administration around how to pay for it. “I think they see that as a separate set of negotiations,” she said. Under the Paris Agreement, nearly 200 nations set their own voluntary targets for cutting emissions by 2025, including major developing nations like China and India. The rules of the accord do not punish countries for failing to meet the goals, but do require countries to set them. The United States is currently less than halfway to its original goal. Concentrations of atmospheric carbon dioxide continue to rise. According to a recent measurement taken at the Mauna Loa Observatory in Hawaii, concentrations recently topped 420 parts per million for the first time since levels have been recorded. Correction: April 13, 2021 Because of an editing error, an earlier version of this article misidentified one of the companies that signed the letter. It was Altria Group, not Philip Morris. (Altria is the parent company of the tobacco giant Philip Morris USA.) An earlier version also may have implied that Philip Morris International was once considered a firm ally of the Republican Party. It was not. Lisa Friedman reports on federal climate and environmental policy from Washington. She has broken multiple stories about the Trump administration’s efforts to repeal climate change regulations and limit the use of science in policymaking. @LFFriedman A version of this article appears in print on April 14, 2021, Section B, Page 3 of the New York edition with the headline: C.E.O.s Ask Biden to Almost Double Emission-Cut Goals. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe CLIMATE FWD: A new administration, an ongoing climate emergency — and a ton of news. Our newsletter will help you stay on top of it. Sign Up Most Read Climate and Environment Stories The Science of Climate Change Explained: Facts, Evidence and Proof There’s a Booming Business in America’s Forests. Some Aren’t Happy About It. The U.S. Has a New Climate Goal. How Does It Stack Up Globally? Climate Change Could Cut World Economy by $23 Trillion in 2050, Insurance Giant Warns Biden, Calling for Action, Commits U.S. to Halving Its Climate Emissions
By Lisa Friedman
| Published April 13, 2021, Updated April 19, 2021 The text being discussed is available at | and |