POWERING A SUSTAINABLE FUTURE WBCSD ELECTRICITY UTILITIES POLICY ADVOCACY

Abstract:

The World Business Council for Sustainable Development’s (WBCSD) Electricity Utilities Sector Project member companies are from the power sector around the globe. They gather to develop understanding of the sustainability challenges facing the sector, examine potential business contributions, and explore policy needs. Climate change has emerged as the key issue.

The market has failed to take into account the cost or damages of greenhouse gases. Policy is needed to drive investment towards efficient end use, carbon free low carbon technologies, and to ensure that other promising technologies, like carbon capture and storage, will be brought into the market place. WBCSD has already published an interim report in 2007. The final report, taking into account inputs from stakeholder engagements carried out in 2008, will be launched at the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC)’s Conference of the Parties (COP) meeting in Poznan, Poland at the end of 2008. The report represents a consensus of positions agreed among the members companies participated in the project. The COP meeting is a global policy arena where we put forward the kind of policies which will be useful around the world and international mechanisms that will help the power sector to take the low carbon technologies forward.