The Triple Bottom Line Blog

It would be easy to exaggerate the importance of an event like this announcement that a group of 160 big-company CEOs in the Business Roundtable are calling for concerted action on global warming.

As we all know, the devil is in the details, and one of the crucial details in the announcement appears near the end: "Business Roundtable members did not reach a consensus on which policy tools, such as carbon taxes, would best serve the climate change fight." Agreement on specific policies, of course, is where good intentions collide with reality--and where the financial interests of specific industries are apt to diverge. So transforming a general consensus on climate change into meaningful support for specific solutions remains a major challenge for leaders in both the business and policy communities.

Nonetheless, this announcement marks a revealing moment in history. It's fascinating to observe how, during the second term of a conservative, pro-business administration in Washington, industry leaders are starting to step to the forefront of reform efforts in two major areas--the US health care system and, now, climate change. As economic pressures on business from these two trouble spots continue to intensify, it's likely we'll see CEOs driving government toward collective solutions rather than fighting such solutions, as in the past.

Labels: Business Roundtable, Climate and Carbon, Role of Government