by Rebecca Walker — March 31, 2010—The corporate response to climate change has become increasingly fragmented in the past year as the combination of the “climategate” scandal, the disappointing conclusion to the Copenhagen summit and the global recession has led some firms to voice skepticism over the need to take action to curb carbon emissions.
That is the conclusion of a major new survey from the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU), which polled more than 540 senior executives, and found that while a number of firms remain fully committed to increasing investment in low-carbon goods and services, many senior executives are unconvinced by the case for climate change policies.
The survey, which was sponsored by the Carbon Trust, IBM, Hitachi and software company 1E, found that just over half of respondents believe the “jury is still out” on the urgent need to tackle climate change, while 32 percent of companies polled said they do not yet have a coherent strategy in place to address energy use, an increase of 7 percentage points on last year.
Moreover, just 12 percent of businesses said they were introducing new green products to keep up with rivals, and seven out of 10 respondents said that carbon reduction policies are primarily driven by public relations issues.
Iain Scott, senior editor at the EIU, said the development of corporate responses to climate change appeared to have stalled at many businesses as a result of a “confluence of reasons,” including the “climategate” emails, the recession, disappointments the Copenhagen summit, and perhaps even the cold winter endured in parts of the northern hemisphere.
However, the survey also revealed that many of the fundamental drivers behind corporate climate change policies remain firmly in place and confirmed that many large firms remain fully committed to establishing themselves as low-carbon businesses.
Just under half of companies said they had a climate change strategy of some form in place, while 59 percent said that carbon emission reduction presents a market opportunity and 49 percent said that it represented a chance to exploit cost advantages.
For more information, see the EIU Web site.
