CEO Council Offers New Year’s Resolutions for a Greener, More Sustainable 2008

December 19, 2007

Canadians should make a New Year’s resolution to ensure that 2008 marks a significant turning point in the battle to address global climate change, says Thomas d’Aquino, Chief Executive and President of theCanadian Council of Chief Executives (CCCE).

“Over the past 12 months, we have witnessed a groundswell of public concern about the environment and climate change,” Mr. d’Aquino said. “In the coming year, our challenge as Canadians is to transform that heightened concern into constructive action that will enable Canada and the world to achieve a permanent, long-term reduction in emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases (GHGs).”

The CCCE is the senior voice of Canadian business, representing 150 chief executives and leading entrepreneurs from all major sectors and regions of the country.  CCCE members lead companies that collectively administer $3.5 trillion in assets, have annual revenues of more than $800 billion, and are responsible for the vast majority of Canada’s exports, investment, research and development, and training.

Earlier this year, the CCCE issued an 11-page Policy Declaration on climate change titled Clean Growth: Building a Canadian Environmental Superpower.  The product of six months of study and consultations by members of the CCCE’s Task Force on Environmental Leadership, the Policy Declaration represents an unprecedented consensus among the CEOs of Canada’s leading energy-producing and energy-consuming companies on how best to move forward in addressing climate change.

“As business leaders, we are gratified by the extent and depth of the interest in our ideas,” Mr. d’Aquino said.  “The responses we have received — and continue to receive — reinforce our belief that climate change and sustainable development offer major economic opportunities for Canada. The key to unlocking those opportunities is a policy framework that promotes economic growth and technological innovation.”

Mr. d’Aquino offered three specific New Year’s resolutions to ensure a greener, more environmentally sustainable 2008:

1. All levels of government in Canada should resolve to work together in forging a coordinated, coherent and effective Canada-wide plan of action on climate change.

“With a clear national strategy and policies to promote investment and innovation, Canada has the potential to become both an energy and an environmental superpower,” Mr. d’Aquino said.

“Right now, unfortunately, we see various provinces and levels of government heading off in different directions, setting different targets and timetables instead of working together to maximize the national effort. This is a recipe for overlap and duplication, for conflicting approaches and regulations that drive up costs with no significant environmental gains.”

2. All segments of Canadian society should resolve to do their part in helping our country make the transition to wiser energy use and reduced GHG emissions.

“Ambitious targets are not enough,” Mr. d’Aquino said. “Making progress in the fight against climate change will require fundamental and far-reaching changes in the way we live, work and play. Tough choices lie ahead, and we should be under no illusion about how long it will take to achieve a lower carbon lifestyle. But 2008 can be the year in which Canadians take a significant step down that path.”

3. As a country, Canada should resolve to use its influence in working toward a global agreement on climate change that is both realistic and effective in stemming the growth of GHG emissions worldwide.

“The recently concluded United Nations Climate Change Conference in Bali set the stage by recognizing that both developed and developing countries have a critical role to play in ensuring a more sustainable global environment,” Mr. d’Aquino said.

“During 2008, the global community must begin to outline an effective, long-term plan to slow and eventually reduce the growth of global GHG emissions. Such an agreement will require renewed commitments from developed countries, but also significant actions by major emerging economies to address their growing GHG emissions.”

Founded in 1976, the CCCE is a not-for-profit, non-partisan organization committed to making Canada “the best place in the world in which to live, to work, to invest and to grow.”

In addition to Mr. d’Aquino, the members of the CCCE’s Executive Committee are:  Chair, Gordon M. Nixon, President and Chief Executive Officer, Royal Bank of Canada; Honorary Chair Richard L. George, President and Chief Executive Officer of Suncor Energy Inc.; and Vice Chairs Dominic D’Alessandro, Paul Desmarais, Jr., Jacques Lamarre, Hartley T. Richardson and Annette Verschuren, the chief executives respectively of Manulife Financial, Power Corporation of Canada, SNC-Lavalin Group Inc., James Richardson & Sons, Limited and The Home Depot Canada.