An esteemed plethora of our nation's corporate heads--along with sundry experts and organizations, all calling themselves the Global Roundtable on Climate Change--yesterday called on world governments to cut emissions. According to the Reuters article as picked up by CNN, "The group includes General Electric, Ford Motor Co., Toyota Motor North America, investment bank Goldman Sachs, and Wal-Mart among its major corporations." The article helpfully points out that "President George W. Bush's administration has rejected mandatory caps on emissions of carbon dioxide and other gases in the United States that contribute to a documented rise in world temperatures -- which is linked to more severe storms, worse droughts, rising seas and other ills." It will be interesting to see how long the Bush administration will continue to hold out on the issue of emissions caps when one of its key pillars of support--corporate America--is increasingly more vocal about global warming. After all, it's hard to say no to GE and Wal-Mart.

Not to be outdone, yesterday the European Union also called for emissions cuts, as related in an article in this morning's The New York Times (free registration may be required to read the article). The EU's ministers "pledged Tuesday to raise their own targets if industrialized countries like the United States made similar efforts." (The Bush administration must be feeling pretty friendless these days, although I suspect they're more concerned about the stance of corporate America than they are about that of the minister of Finland.)

All is not harmonious amongst the members of the EU, however. A proposal that "20 percent of all energy must come from renewable sources, like wind and solar power, by 2020" was not approved because of resistance from Poland and Hungary, who are concerned that the poorer European countries will further fall behind as they attempt to develop their economies.

Sweden and Denmark, on the other hand, are pushing for a 30 percent target, and the German Parliament has recommended a 40 percent target. Concludes the article, "Such differences could foreshadow a showdown in March, when political leaders are to meet in Brussels and reach a final position."