Fostering local leadership to limit global warming

State registry helps agencies, businesses to manage greenhouse-gas emissions

As the reality of global climate change becomes clear, sensible people are becoming concerned about consequences such as flooding, catastrophic storms, and famine.

Many business owners and leaders of other large organizations share these concerns, but they have others as well. They're worried about future regulations for reducing greenhouse-gas (GHG) emissions, they want to protect their corporate or institutional image, and they don't want to get sued. Even though GHG emissions are not currently regulated in the United States, many organizations want to reduce their contributions to global warming now.

For a large company or government agency to make intelligent decisions about investments in energy efficiency and waste reduction, it must first understand what it is emitting. Calculating an emissions inventory is complicated. A company might have thousands of sources of GHG: boilers, manufacturing processes, vehicle emissions, fugitive emissions from pipelines, and indirect emissions from purchased electricity and steam.

To address this situation, California has established the California Climate Action Registry, a private non-profit organization created to encourage companies and government agencies to voluntarily measure, publicly report, and reduce their GHG emissions.

Organizations that enlist with the Registry get several key benefits.

• By establishing a baseline level of GHG emissions, they can get credit from future regulators for actions they take now to reduce those emissions.
• Joining the Registry enhances a firm's environmental reputation and could help shield it from such actions as hostile shareholder resolutions.
• Participants get access to the Registry's valuable software for tracking and monitoring GHG.

One important aspect of the Registry's mandate is to develop a single consistent accounting standard for GHG emissions. When companies publicly report GHG emissions on the Registry's web site, the public will be able to compare them. The Registry's membership includes large and small companies and government agencies from around California, including many of California's largest cities. To learn more about the Registry and see a list of member organizations, visit www.climateregistry.org

What You Can Do

Public agencies ought to be leaders in addressing global warming, but many still are not. Sierra Club activists in the Angeles Chapter have had great success convincing public agencies in Southern California to join the Registry. We can do the same in the Bay Area. Write to the following agencies and urge them to join the Registry and publicly declare targets for reduction:

AC Transit
Joe Wallace, Board President
1600 Franklin St.
Oakland, CA 94612

BART
Board of Directors
P.O. Box 12688
Oakland, CA 94604-2688

EBMUD
Frank Mellon, Board President
P.O. Box 24055
Oakland, CA 94623

Alameda Power and Telecom
Ann L. McCormick, Public Utilities Board President
2000 Grand St.
Alameda, CA 94501