SUMMARY:

One hundred and eighty-six nations have ratified the 1992 Framework Convention on Climate Change, responding to the long-term challenge of climate change and the contribution of greenhouse gas emissions from human sources. DuPont has participated in international scientific study of climate change and believes there is need for prudent action. We began taking action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the early 1990s, have accomplished major global reductions and set ambitious goals for the current decade. We intend to meet those goals.

DUPONT'S ACCOMPLISHMENTS AND GOALS:

DuPont in 1991 committed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from our operations and to increase energy efficiency. During the 1990s we reduced greenhouse gas emissions (carbon equivalent) from operations by approximately 50 percent globally. This was primarily through major process-change investments to reduce nitrous oxide emission in the United States, Canada and the UK, (with the low-emission technology designed-in at a new plant in Singapore), and through reductions in byproducts of fluorocarbon manufacture. We also held energy consumption flat, despite a 36 percent increase in production volume (approximately half this gain was from process and powerhouse efficiency improvements – half from product and process mix changes). DuPont has set business-driven internal goals for the current decade, anticipating both market pressures and opportunities as economies respond to the long-term climate challenge. These are aimed to position our businesses for the marketplace of 20 to 50 years from now – one which will demand less emissions and a markedly smaller "environmental footprint" from human activity. Specifically, by 2010, our goals are:

We will reduce our global carbon-equivalent greenhouse gas emissions by 65 percent using 1990 as a base year. For purposes of our "scorecard," we use the gases focused upon in the Kyoto Protocol;

We will hold total energy use flat using 1990 as a base year. This will require that our business growth be much more "knowledge intensive" and much less raw material- and energy-intensive than in the past – a move that is very consistent with our stated corporate goal of "sustainable growth"; and

THE POLITICAL CONTEXT:

Governments must stimulate action to moderate greenhouse gas emissions, to enable gradual transition to the greenhouse-gas constraints required for long-term stabilization. The international community is responding to that challenge through the long-term 1992 Framework Convention and the short-term 1997 Kyoto Protocol. DuPont views the Protocol as an expression by governments of the seriousness with which they view climate change and a declaration of intent to intervene – a signal that government policy will play an instrumental role. It is, however, still a work in progress. Its basic structure has both strengths (net-emissions focus, country flexibility and market-responsive emissions trading mechanisms) and weaknesses (aggressive short-term timetable, lack of long-term strategy, and a focus only on developed nations). The long-term challenge demands that governments fashion a coordinated global program that builds on these strengths and responds constructively to these weaknesses, in a manner embraced by all of the parties to the Framework Convention on Climate Change – the United States and its negotiating partners, the European Union, countries with economies in transition and the developing world. DuPont will continue to work with the international climate change processes to further environmental sustainability and the global economic vitality so crucial to meeting this challenge. We will also continue working with governments to help them fashion complimentary country-level strategies and programs, including interim steps that encourage and reward actions that advance these ends.

06/01