Climate

In 1999, WWF began the Climate Savers program, an initiative to mobilize multinational companies to cut emissions, dispel the myth that costs are too high, and promote the business case for energy efficiency and clean technology. Today, WWF Climate Savers companies are posting impressive results, scaling up efficiency, putting clean energy technologies in place, and saving hundreds of millions of dollars. By 2010, participants in the program will collectively cut carbon emissions by over 14 million tons annually, the equivalent of taking more than a million homes off the electricity grid.

We expanded the program in 2007 to drive the use of energy-efficient computers, forming the Climate Savers Computing Initiative with partners such as Google, Intel, Hewlett-Packard, Dell, Acer and Microsoft. In just the first year, nearly 300 companies signed on, including 29 of the world’s biggest. Participants in this initiative have set smart-computing targets to cut an additional 54 million tons of carbon emissions annually by 2010.

Moving Beyond the First Decade

While Climate Savers have shown leadership from the start of the program, over the past year we have looked at how they can leverage their leadership to influence others. WWF will build on the experience from its existing corporate partnerships in the U.S., Europe and Japan by expanding the program to rapidly developing economies. We will also develop strategies to establish codes of conduct and standards, particularly in highemitting industrial sectors such as steel, aluminum, chemicals and transportation.

We are exploring the potential for collaboration among corporations in sectors whose inputs and outputs are linked, to encourage a systems approach to innovation and reductions in emissions. Ultimately, we see the commitment to take action on climate change as standard practice across business and industry here in the U.S. and around the world.

Scaling Up Commitments

In February, we convened the 2008 Climate Savers Summit in Tokyo to carve out ways to increase the companies’ collective influence. One result was the Climate Savers Tokyo Declaration, in which companies including Allianz, Hewlett- Packard, Sony and Nike dramatically scaled up their commitments. They will actively promote a low-carbon lifestyle among consumers, engage business partners in emissions reductions, and share proven approaches so others can achieve similar results. And they will take leadership in expanding our program to new sectors and geographic regions.

Underlying the Tokyo Declaration is the fact that these companies are united in the value they place on current climate science and the belief that all necessary action should be taken to limit the global average temperature increase to a maximum of 2°C compared to preindustrial levels.

As part of our work advocating for stronger climate policies around the world, WWF presented the Climate Savers Tokyo Declaration at the July meeting of G8 ministers in Hokkaido, Japan. Meeting for the first time since the December 2007 UN Climate Change Conference, leaders of the world’s major economies agreed to promote the goal of achieving at least 50 percent reduction of global emissions by 2050.

Taking a Stand on Climate Policy

In early June, as the U.S. Senate was about to vote on the Climate Security Act, WWF brought together Climate Savers companies and several other major corporations to urge passage of strong climate legislation. In a letter to all 100 senators they wrote, "By harnessing the power of market mechanisms within a federally mandated system, Congress can combat climate change while creating significant business opportunities, providing our companies with the certainty they need for business planning and opening up new avenues for innovation."

While the legislation regrettably failed to garner the required 60-vote supermajority, the 48-36 vote in favor of it marked a significant shift in political support and suggests more favorable outcomes may well be in our future. "When major corporations publicly urge Congress to pass climate change legislation," WWF President and CEO Carter Roberts said, "it’s a clear sign that addressing the problem is in our nation’s economic interests."