NB Not to be confused with this 2015 outfit…
The product of some ‘mid-wiving’ by Australian Conservation Foundation, among others, this grouping stuck its head above the parapet in April 2006, with a report on “The Business Case for Early [sic] Action on Climate Change.” It was front page news for The Age.
Colebatch, T. and Myer, R. (2006) Companies urge action on warming The Age. 7 April p.1.Climate change threatens us all: executives
SIX of Australia’s biggest companies have broken ranks to call on the Federal Government to take tough action to reduce Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions, including some form of charge on carbon emissions and a binding target.
The companies – Westpac, BP, power company Origin Energy, paper giant Visy and insurers Swiss Re and IAG – say it is now clear that greenhouse gas emissions are causing hotter and more unstable weather, and could lead to serious costs for agriculture, tourism, and Australian business generally.
CSIRO research commissioned for the study warns that even a rise of two degrees in global temperatures could bleach the Great Barrier Reef, dry up most of Kakadu’s wetlands, cut the livestock capacity of inland Australia by 40 per cent, and deplete Australia’s snowfields.
IAG chief executive Michael Hawker, speaking yesterday at the release of the group’s report, blamed climate change for a massive rise in weather-related calamities, including cyclones, floods, high winds and hailstorms.
I thought that was “it” for them, but have just stumbled on this –
Anon, 2006. CLIMATE; Business groups call for Australia to cut emissions. Greenwire, 28 August.
The Great Barrier Reef and the Kakadu wetlands, two of Australia’s biggest tourist attractions, will dry up and be lost within decades unless the country cuts its emissions of greenhouse gases by 60 percent by 2050, according to a CSIRO report released today by six major Australian companies.
The Australian Business Roundtable on Climate Change, which includes companies such as BP Australia, IAG Insurance and Westpac Bank, commissioned the report.
Prime Minister John Howard disputed the report’s recommendations. “That sort of scenario, 60 percent for Australia, would have enormously damaging impacts on our economy, on the price of petrol, on a whole lot of things,” he said. “And it would have a very big impact on our … GDP, because to achieve that you have to impose a carbon tax.”
marchudson.net 