Ten years ago, on this day, April 10, 2013, US companies tried to make it look like they care.
“Thirty-three major U.S. companies, including eBay Inc., Nike and Limited Brands met in Washington DC on April 10th 2013 to unveil the Climate Declaration, urging federal policymakers to take action on climate change and asserting that a bold response to the climate challenge is one of the greatest American economic opportunities of the 21st century.”
The amount of carbon dioxide in the air was roughly 398.6ppm. As of 2023 it is 420ppm, but check here for daily measures.
The context was
On November 20 2008 something called “Business for Innovative Climate & Energy Policy” had been founded, created by one of these ‘responsible investment’ outfits (wikipedia – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Business_for_Innovative_Climate_and_Energy_Policy).
What I think we can learn from this
Companies that sell directly to consumers always worry about their reputations, and “customer sentiment”. Being “out in front” of an issue, especially if the demand is “government do something” is a handy way of having a defense ready if the greenies turn their attention to you.
What happened next
The usual – new ‘ad hoc’ business groups form. Lots of excited, excitable and ahistoric hype gets bandied about. Rinse and repeat, rinse and repeat…
Occasionally, things like “cap and trade” schemes (and I mean they are schemes) are defended by the trusty arm of BICEP… https://www.ceres.org/news-center/blog/changing-game-climate-advocacy-bicep-10-years-strong
What do you think? Does this pass the ‘so what?’ threshold? Have I got facts wrong? Interpretation wrong? Please do comment on this post, unless you are a denialist, obvs.