Ford Says Global Warming Exists
Ford Motor Co. has withdrawn from a lobbying group that leads opposition to the Kyoto climate treaty, saying credible evidence of global warming exists and companies should work together to find technological solutions.
Ford is the latest example of a Fortune 500 company quitting the Global Climate Coalition and saying global warming must be dealt with. Other companies that have left the group in the last two years include British Petroleum, Shell Oil and Dow Chemical.
The Global Climate Coalition is a Washington-based group that argues there is insufficient scientific evidence to confirm serious warming of the Earth due to so-called greenhouse gases. The coalition has more than 40 corporate members, including oil companies and auto makers such as General Motors Corp. and DaimlerChrysler.
Many scientists believe the Earth is gradually warming because of greenhouse gas emissions--mainly carbon dioxide from automobiles, factories and power plants.
Ford’s chairman, William Clay Ford Jr., is a self-described “lifelong environmentalist” and promised last year to make the world’s No. 2 auto maker the industry leader in developing clean vehicles.
“Over time, being in GCC has become something of an impediment to pursuing our environmental initiatives in a credible way,” Ford spokesman Terry Bresnihan said.
“We do believe there is something to climate change. There is enough evidence that something is happening that we ought to start looking at this seriously,” he said.
Ford favors working with other companies on technology-based solutions, Bresnihan said.
Ford has made a series of announcements in the last two years that its light trucks would meet tougher emissions standards than the government requires. And Ford and other auto makers have been working on hybrid cars that get much greater mileage.
Global Climate Coalition spokesman Frank Maisano called Ford’s decision “a little disappointing” and said he believes the company and the group share similar positions on global warming.
“Our intent at Ford is to move forward in progressive and constructive ways to address environmental issues,” William Clay Ford wrote in a letter Friday explaining the company’s decision to Dominican Sister Patricia Daly of the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility.
Environmental groups applauded Ford’s move. Ozone Action Director John Passacantando called it “a signal that corporate America is recognizing the reality of the threat.”
If ratified, the 1997 climate treaty reached in Kyoto, Japan, would require that the United States reduce greenhouse emissions to below 1990 levels by 2008-2012, a cut of more than a third from where emissions are expected to be by then.
