Prepared for the Clinton Global Initiative Panel on Climate Change
New York City
September 17, 2005
I am pleased to participate in the Clinton Global Initiative and particularly happy to have an opportunity to make my contribution to the dialog as part of the climate change discussion.
At DuPont we strive for Sustainable Growth which we define as creating shareholder and societal value while reducing our environmental footprint. Science provides us the tools for Sustainable Growth, and has led us to concrete action at my company. Among those actions climate change figures prominently. That’s because most climate change issues have as a common denominator ongoing work in atmospheric sciences, and DuPont has paid close attention to developments in atmospheric sciences for a long time. Back in the 1980s, it was atmospheric research that led to the Montreal Protocol and the international agreement to discontinue the use of chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) from industrial and consumer applications around the world.
DuPont led the phase out of CFCs, and we put our science to work coming up with safer compounds to replace them. Two years ago we were proud to accept a National Medal of Technology for our leadership role in that historic transition.
In the course of our work on the ozone depletion issue, DuPont became more aware of the science of human impacts on climate change and the potential business risks and opportunities associated with it. We focused on greenhouse gas emissions, because we understood that the evolving science was concluding that these emissions were contributing to global climate change.
Those business risks included the cost of measuring and monitoring emissions as well as the cost of reducing emissions or otherwise bringing our operations into compliance with current or future regulations. We also realized that when the environmental impact was judged serious enough, whole product families could be restricted or eliminated, as had occurred with CFCs. There was also the ever-present issue of public reputation and market presence, both of which could be affected globally by environmental performance that did not meet public expectations. Of course, we also recognized that there would be market opportunities as the world began to adapt to greenhouse gas constraints.
As a response to these concerns, our first step in the early 1990s was to identify and measure DuPont’s footprint of greenhouse gas emissions from its global operations including CO2 and non-CO2 global warming gases. We discovered three major sources of greenhouse gas emissions from our operations: nitrous oxide emissions from the manufacture of nylon intermediates; HFC-23 emissions from the manufacture of refrigerant intermediates; and carbon dioxide emissions from energy consumption at our many plant sites around the world.
In 1994 we were the first company to pledge support to the ClimateWise partnership, sponsored by the US EPA and US Department of Energy, to help businesses develop comprehensive emissions reduction programs. We also set a voluntary goal in 1994 to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions by 40 percent by the year 2000. We reached the 40 percent milestone in 2000, and revised the goal to achieve a 65 percent reduction globally by 2010. We exceeded the 65 percent goal in 2003, seven years ahead of schedule. We are currently working on a new goal to continue this progress.
Another 2010 goal is to have renewable energy represent 10 percent of our total annual energy consumption. We are currently around five percent, and much of that has been achieved at a cost benefit to DuPont. We are also committed to renewable resources. One example: Our Solae soy protein business in Memphis, Tennessee, uses landfill gas to replace more than 90% of the natural gas used to fuel the site boilers. The resulting greenhouse gas emissions reduction is equivalent to removing 70,000 cars from the road – all the while saving us $4 million a year.
We have also participated in the emerging voluntary and regulated markets for greenhouse gas emissions credits trading, such as the Chicago Climate Exchange, and we recently announced our intention to continue as a full member. We have also engaged in the public policy discussion through the Pew Center for Climate Change and the Partnership for Climate Action.
We have taken a consistent position with regard to global warming and its potential for climate change. We believe that the science is sufficiently compelling to take prudent actions, as we have. The most efficient way to accomplish greenhouse gas emissions reductions is through market-based systems. Entities must receive credit for early actions. We also believe this is a global challenge and all major emitting nations need to be part of the solution. Developing economies have to be engaged in the global effort to reduce climate impacts, and all sectors of the economy must contribute to the solution.
While we have taken these actions and policy positions because they are the right things to do, I want to stress that there has also been a strong business case for what we have done. In working to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, we achieved more than $2 billion in avoided costs due to energy conservation activities – and that was before the significant energy price increases of the last few years.
We are also pursuing market opportunities for products to meet the climate challenge. Recent reports have calculated that buildings account for 42 percent of total energy use. One of our most well-known products is Tyvek® HomeWrap®, which wraps the walls of almost three quarters of a billion buildings around the world. It is also used in roofing systems. In just one year, Tyvekâwill save 10 times the amount of energy needed to produce it. In that regard, it is a sustainable product, and it helps reduce the amount of energy consumed to heat and cool homes and commercial buildings. Other DuPont materials are essential to solar panel and wind-energy systems, enabling businesses and consumers to convert wind and the sun’s energy into electricity.
DuPont also invented many of the refrigerant products on the market today and we lead the industry with our Suva® refrigerants which have far less global warming potential than the products they replaced. We offer the industry’s broadest range of sustainable and effective products for new and existing refrigeration and air-conditioning equipment.
As part of our long-standing commitment to eliminate ozone depleting substances, we recently added a new line of products in our refrigerants portfolio. For countries in parts of Europe and Asia where air conditioning and refrigeration are growing at more than 10 percent per year, these alternatives are critical to accelerating the reduction of ozone depleting substances, including CFCs still used in developing countries.
Another example of what can be accomplished is the IMAC - or Improved Mobile Air Conditioning – initiative for automotive air conditioning. With more than 730 million cars and small trucks on the road globally, automotive air conditioning continues to be in high demand and a major use of HFC-134a. This is a multi-stakeholder initiative, which DuPont helped co-found. The objective is to make current automotive climate control systems, based on the refrigerant HFC-134a, more sustainable by reducing refrigerant emissions 50 percent and increasing energy efficiency 30 percent.
We are broadly moving our operations away from reliance on fossil fuels and raw materials and increasingly toward renewables. For example, we are in the process of pioneering a new generation of polymer materials made from renewable resources like corn. With our joint venture partner, Tate & Lyle, we are completing the construction of a new plant in Loudon, Tennessee that will be used to manufacture Bio-PDO™. This is a key ingredient for our first bio-based polymer, called Sorona®. Making Bio-PDO™ from corn uses 40 percent less energy than would be needed to produce a petroleum-based equivalent. Our new plant will save the equivalent of 10 million gallons of gasoline per year, or enough to fuel 22,000 cars annually.
Looking toward the future, we are leading a research program with the support of the U.S. Department of Energy to develop an integrated biorefinery process that will convert the entire corn plant into bio-derived chemicals, like Bio-PDO™, and biofuels, like ethanol. The integrated biorefinery will create a new business model for sustainable production of chemicals, fuels and energy. The corn fields of today could indeed be the oilfields of tomorrow, and the U.S. agricultural community could greatly benefit from the success of an integrated biorefinery. The technology will lower reliance on petroleum, reduce greenhouse gases, and create a global and sustainable bio-based economy. This four-year, $38 million research program combines the expertise of DuPont and its partners, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Diversa Corp., Deere & Co. and Michigan State University.
These are just some of the products and technologies that we are able to bring to market. They are profitable businesses for DuPont. They offer valuable solutions to our customers and to society. And they help reduce environmental impact with regard to climate change. We believe that societies around the world expect this kind of comprehensive approach to doing business as the 21st century progresses. We at DuPont are proud to lead the way in sustainable growth.
