Position Statement

What We Believe: We believe the scientific understanding of climate change is sufficient to compel prompt, effective actions to limit emissions of greenhouse gases. We believe that to be successful these actions will require concerted engagement by the world’s governments, along with technological innovations by businesses, and individual actions by all citizens.  DuPont’s mission is sustainable growth – the creation of shareholder and societal value while reducing the Company’s environmental footprint along the value chains in which we operate.  We see many opportunities to take our commitment to sustainability and apply this to developing the products and technologies that our customers will demand in a low carbon economy.  

We believe any strategy to address climate change must be both environmentally effective and economically sustainable.  Policy solutions must be good for the environment, for business, and for people around the world.  The magnitude of innovation and action required to effectively address climate change is unparalleled. 

What We Have Done: DuPont began taking action to address climate change over fifteen years ago.  We have accomplished major global reductions in our own greenhouse gas emissions, and we continue to set ambitious goals for additional emission reductions.  We publicly report our corporate emissions data and associated climate risks and opportunities through the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) and are listed on the 2009 Carbon Disclosure Leadership Index.

Typically, greenhouse gas emissions rise as companies grow.  Between 1990 and 2004, DuPont set progressively challenging corporate goals and established global systems to manage our emissions, actions that resulted in a 72% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions even as we grew. By 2015, DuPont will further reduce our GHG emissions at least an additional 15% from an updated base year of 2004. Our updated baseline year is adjusted from our original baseline year of 1990 to reflect changes in our business portfolio, ensuring that we are accounting only for actual reductions and not portfolio changes.  These voluntary actions have had a real impact on emissions.  As of 2007, DuPont had implemented projects (including at facilities that have since been divested) that cumulatively reduced our company’s greenhouse gas emissions by 230 million metric tons, equivalent to the annual emissions of over 42 million passenger vehicles in the United States.

Effectively addressing climate change will require changes in the way the world produces and uses energy and other natural resources.  This is why DuPont has created corporate sustainability goals that focus on achieving more efficient use of resources and producing products that help others do so as well.

Like greenhouse gas emissions, energy use tends to grow as companies grow.  In 1999, we pledged to hold our total energy use flat, on absolute terms, at 1990 levels.  Our current annual energy use is 8% below 1990 levels, an accomplishment that was achieved while we increased production by over 45%.  The resulting energy savings has reduced our costs by over $3 billion since 1990 and contributed to our greenhouse gas reductions.  Those energy savings involved continued improvements to our energy-using systems; optimization of energy generation and distribution at our facilities; the use of improved process controls; new technologies with lower energy consumption, and; importantly, improved productivity from DuPont’s manufacturing processes. To learn more about DuPont’s corporate sustainability goals, please visit: www.sustainability.dupont.com.

The Role of Business:  The business community has a critical role to play in developing and bringing to market the technologies and solutions that will make possible the transition to a low-carbon economy.  This transition will provide new markets for innovative companies to prosper.  With DuPont’s latest set of sustainability goals, we have broadened our focus beyond our own environmental footprint to include targets related to products that help others in the economy reduce their greenhouse gas emissions.  These include both product revenue goals and research and development investment targets.  These goals tie business growth to the development of safer, cleaner, and more efficient products for global markets.  DuPont is dedicated to using our science to bring innovative products and solutions to market.

DuPont is focused on delivering solutions that help our customers conserve and use energy efficiently, as well as applying our science to develop technologies that enable alternative energy sources across many applications - including biofuels, solar, wind, and fuel cells.  For example, in the building and construction industry we produce many building materials that contribute to greater energy efficiency of residential and commercial buildings.  In the agricultural sector, our products help farmers produce more food with fewer inputs, reducing greenhouse gas emissions.  For example, our seed business Pioneer Hi-Bred provides seeds that are increasingly resistant to adverse weather conditions; pest resistant; fertilizer efficient and high yielding; allowing farmers to continually produce more food and fuel per acre with fewer inputs. We are developing next-generation refrigerants for use in air conditioning and refrigeration systems in cars, homes, offices, and commercial spaces.  In the alternative energy arena, our scientists have developed advanced, high-performance fuels to expand fuel options for consumers and bio-based materials like plastic from corn instead of oil.  We also provide high-performance materials for wind turbines, photovoltaic solar panels and fuel cells.  DuPont is contributing to greater efficiency in transportation through innovative lightweight high strength polymers in automobiles and airplanes.  And we continue to monitor emerging and growing markets, such as those for climate mitigation and adaptation technologies where we could bring unique solutions to market.

In October 2006 DuPont announced our 2015 Sustainability Goals, which include these market-facing goals.  These goals address all stages of product development, from R&D efforts through marketing and sales:

• Environmentally Smart Market Opportunities from R&D Efforts: By 2015, DuPont will double our investment in R&D programs with direct, quantifiable environmental benefits for our customers and consumers along our value chains. Our baseline is $320 million, so we will be investing at least $640 million by 2015.
• Products that Reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions: By 2015, DuPont will grow our annual revenues by at least $2 billion from products that create energy efficiency and/or significant greenhouse gas emissions reductions for our customers.  We estimate these products will contribute at least 40 million tonnes of additional CO2 equivalent reductions by our customers and consumers. 
• Revenues from Non-Depletable Resources: By 2015, DuPont will nearly double our revenues from non-depletable resources to at least $8 billion.
• Products that Protect People: DuPont will enhance our focus on protecting people. We will increase the amount of R&D spent on developing and bringing to market new products that will protect people from harm or threats. Between now and 2015, we will introduce at least 1,000 new products or services that help make people safer globally. 

The Role of Government: Responding to climate change presents a significant challenge that will require concerted global action by individuals, businesses and national, state, and local governments.  Government policies will be required to create an effective and fair framework for these actions.  All major emitting nations will need to play a role if we are to successfully address the global challenge of climate change.  Effective global climate policy will help drive the market changes that are needed to stimulate and efficiently deploy new innovations in science and technology. 

DuPont believes that there is an appropriate leadership role for the developed nations to fulfill. As negotiations towards a global framework for reducing greenhouse gas emissions continue through the United Nations, the European Union has put in place an Emissions Trading Scheme and the United States is actively debating a federal climate change program.  National and regional policies will provide important cornerstones for a global framework, and should be designed to maintain economic competitiveness and avoid shifting carbon emissions from capped to uncapped economies in the years before an international approach has been adopted.  Given the scope of economic and technological transformation required to slow, stop and reverse the trend in greenhouse gas emissions, policies must be developed quickly, but carefully to ensure adequate reductions in an economically sustainable manner.  Innovation is essential to addressing the long term challenge of climate change and can help promote economic growth in developed and developing countries around the world. 

To encourage environmentally effective and economically sustainable policy actions, DuPont is actively engaging with policymakers and other business and NGO stakeholders from around the world to develop constructive public policies to address global climate change.  DuPont’s belief in the importance of taking prompt, coordinated, and strong action to address climate change is why we actively participate in a number of stakeholder initiatives around the globe and why we are a founding member of the U.S. Climate Action Partnership (USCAP).  To that end, DuPont is advocating the passage of U.S. climate change legislation consistent with the U.S. Climate Action Partnership (USCAP) principles, and working closely with members of both the House and the Senate to advance progress on this important issue.

DuPont is actively engaged in many fora around the world to encourage concerted global action.  DuPont scientists have contributed to the scientific and technical assessments of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, and shared in the recognition of the IPCC when it was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in December 2007.  We are actively engaged with the US Climate Action Partnership (www.us-cap.org) in the United States and the World Business Council on Sustainable Development (www.wbcsd.org). 

We are advocating policies that include:

• Broad, coordinated action across all sectors of the economy, with measures tailored to the economic conditions of the various sectors.
• Incentives to cost-effectively reduce emissions of all of the greenhouse gases.
• Measures to ensure economic efficiency, through the use of market-based mechanisms such as cap-and-trade that can spur innovation and economic growth.
• Recognition that complementary policies and measures – such as energy efficiency standards - may be needed to drive the necessary cost effective emission reductions, particularly in the near-term.  A combination of mandates, incentives and government support will be required.
• Provisions for near-, mid- and long-term actions.  We need to take cost-effective actions to ensure the deployment of existing technology, while ensuring adequate investment to drive development of next generation technologies.
• Recognition of companies that have taken early, verifiable voluntary actions and encourage others to take responsible action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions while a national program is being developed.
• Coordination of energy and climate change policies, recognizing that addressing climate change will require a transformation of how the world produces and consumes energy.
• Governmental incentives and support for science and technology research, development, demonstration, and deployment.
• Greater cooperation and collaboration amongst all countries and regions.
  

Working With Others: The kinds of concrete action DuPont and many other companies are taking to address climate change can also be undertaken by other suppliers, customers and consumers throughout the value chains in which we operate.  DuPont encourages and is active in dialogues among companies, the scientific community, governments and environmental groups – and we urge action by everyone.  DuPont is committed to climate change policy that is both environmentally effective and economically sustainable.  While specific policy actions and proposals are still being debated, what should not be debated is whether action is necessary.  On that point the early results are in and they confirm what we expected – action works.

To learn more about DuPont’s voluntary initiatives and partnerships, please visit: http://www2.dupont.com/Sustainability/en_US/sustain_action/initiatives/index.html