Enron’s Climate Change Policy

I’ve posted up a little treat from the past – Enron’s climate change policy as downloaded in October 2002. I knew that Enron was favor of Kyoto before I knew of Michael Mann. In 1998, Enron received the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Climate Protection Award for its “exemplary efforts and achievements in protecting the global climate.” Their pamphlet includes the following interesting definition of climate change:

Climate change, also known as “global warming,” is a phenomenon that occurs when “greenhouse gases” are released into the atmosphere.

I don’t want to engage personally in a thread about carbon trading, other than to say that, as someone with some limited international trading experience, I can think of some important reasons why a person concerned about climate change could rationally oppose the Kyoto trading system as a relevant means of achieving that goal.

This entry was written by Stephen McIntyre, posted on May 27, 2006 at 10:33 PM, filed under General and tagged . Bookmark the permalink. Follow any comments here with the RSS feed for this post. Both comments and trackbacks are currently closed.

7 Comments

  1. Pat Frank
    Posted May 27, 2006 at 11:42 PM | Permalink

    Steve wrote: “I can think of some important reasons why a person concerned about climate change could rationally oppose the Kyoto trading system as a relevant means of achieving that goal.”

    Such as what? 🙂

    I, too, like how “climate change” is pamphletically defined. It’s defined that way in GCM’s too, as Doug Hoyt pointed out. Without human-produced CO2 as a driver, GCM’s pretty much predict a flat climate. There’s a reassuring result that should inspire confidence in GCM futurology.

  2. ET SidViscous
    Posted May 28, 2006 at 12:05 AM | Permalink

    But wait. I thought Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) was a good thing.

  3. Louis Hissink
    Posted May 28, 2006 at 7:37 AM | Permalink

    Paraphrasing Steve:

    “Climate change is a phenomenon that occurs when “greenhouse gases” are released into the atmosphere”.

    Isn’t this a non sequitor?

    Sorry 🙂

  4. Steve McIntyre
    Posted May 28, 2006 at 9:03 PM | Permalink

    Hi Steve- My comment gets bounced for some reason, but this is what I tried to leave on your Enron Climate Change Policy post:

    Steve- That definition is straight out of the Framework Convention on Climate Change:
    Pielke, Jr., R.A., 2005. Misdefining climate change: consequences for science and action, Environmental Science Policy, Vol. 8, pp. 548-561. here
    Best regards, Roger

    Steve: I had an extremely difficult time posting your comment as well. Roger, you used an abbreviation for the Framework Convention which Spam Karma confused with another F-word. Sometimes Spam Karma amazes me with its seeming intelligence.

  5. Sonnie
    Posted May 29, 2006 at 5:51 AM | Permalink

    But wait. I thought Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) was a good thing. Comment by ET SidViscous “¢’‚¬?

    Yes, it’s suppose to be…

  6. chiz
    Posted Apr 1, 2008 at 8:50 AM | Permalink

    Good post. You make some great points that most people do not fully understand.

    “I don’t want to engage personally in a thread about carbon trading, other than to say that, as someone with some limited international trading experience, I can think of some important reasons why a person concerned about climate change could rationally oppose the Kyoto trading system as a relevant means of achieving that goal.”

    I like how you explained that. Very helpful. Thanks.

  7. Steve McIntyre
    Posted Sep 21, 2008 at 4:34 PM | Permalink

    In 2000, Mayor Marc H. Morial, New Orleans received the same EPA award as Enron. I guess that his foresight was even more fully recognized in 2005.

    Under Mr. Morial’s leadership, the City of New Orleans joined the Cities for Climate Protection Program. This program requires member cities to pass a climate protection resolution, to establish a baseline emissions profile, to identify a reduction target, to prepare a local action plan and to initiate actions to reduce multiple emissions. In 1997, New Orleans hosted a town-hall meeting of national and local leaders to discuss the risks of climate change and the vulnerabilities faced by New Orleans. New Orleans will host the next workshop of the Cities for Climate Protection that will focus on transportation and public education. Mr. Morial successfully submitted a resolution on climate change at the last United States Council of Mayors meeting to make global warming a priority and to develop and implement policies that work with local communities to reduce domestic sources of greenhouse gas emissions

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