Common efforts

Working together to address global problems

“Greenhouse gas emissions threaten climate change. One-third of the world’s people have no access to basic services. Industrialization in developing countries often means poor working conditions and can pose new environmental threats.”

“Global corporations are often criticized for aggravating global problems. But they can also provide many of the skills and resources that can solve them.”

At the corporate level, ABB is involved in a number of global and regional collaborations: working together to solve these problems.

From talk to action:
taking billions of tons a year out of the global greenhouse
In 1998, ABB made a proposal at the international congress of the World Energy Council (WEC): set a target to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and then take actions to meet it.

The WEC Pilot Program on Greenhouse Gas Emissions Reductions began work, under ABB’s leadership, in February 1999. It reached its initial target, to demonstrate a one-billion-ton (CO2 equivalent) annual reduction by 2005, well ahead of schedule in April 2001. The target has been revised upwards to two billion tons annually by 2005, though even this now seems modest. By the start of 2002, annual savings had reached 1.6 billion tons (see page 39).

One of the most valuable outputs of the WEC program is its database – a registry of nearly 900 emissions-reduction projects in 100 countries.

Accessible on the worldwide web, the database allows ideas to be shared and opens for inspection the achievements of individual companies, as well as the global energy industry.

The project was praised by Klaus Töpfer, executive director of the United Nations Environment Program, in his message to climate-change negotiators in Bonn on June 29, 2001. “We must do more, we have to do more. But the march to a less polluting world has begun,” he said.

www.worldenergy.org

CETP Forum The CETP Forum where Industry and academia come away from entrenched positions and meet with stakeholders to explore new solutions.

Generating greener electricity in China
Rapid economic growth means China’s demand for electricity is soaring. The country has huge coal reserves – but burning coal is one of the most environmentally damaging ways to generate electricity.

In 1999 ABB, together with the Alliance for Global Sustainability (see page 54), launched its biggest-ever study of sustainable development, called the China Energy Technology Program (CETP). Its aim was to analyze the true, cradle-to-grave impact of a range of power generation options, focusing on the needs of Shandong, a rapidly developing coastal province neighbored by Beijing to the north and Shanghai to the south.

The CETP involved some 70 scientists, engineers and academics from three continents, as well as local stakeholder representatives. After nearly three years’ work, it presented its main conclusions in March 2002. They will be published as a book and a DVD. The DVD will allow users to inspect the results interactively, and see how different factors can influence a given environmental scenario.


The China energy technology program: main conclusions

1. It is feasible, and economically and socially justifiable, to generate more electricity with less air pollution and associated damage to health and the environment.
2. There are cost-efficient ways to cut air pollutants and stabilize greenhouse gas emissions.
3. A more sustainable electricity supply industry requires the use of improved technologies, fuel treatment and diversification, and demand-side management.

The CETP provided a platform to explore various options and trade-offs for sustainability, based on stakeholder preferences. This groundwork can be further exploited for a variety of applications, in China and elsewhere.


Bringing electricity to the world's poorest communities
Global poverty is one of the greatest threats to world stability. The world’s richest countries promise help. But getting results means a steady commitment of resources, and consistent attention from governments, business and non-governmental organizations.

Basic infrastructure – like clean water, reliable energy and communications networks – is a prerequisite for poor communities to begin the journey to prosperity.

In recent years, ABB has developed small-scale, sustainable power generation technologies that are ideal for many of the world’s poorest communities, many of which lie beyond the reach of electricity grids.

This is the background to ABB’s “Access to Electricity” project, which aims to make a contribution in bringing a sustainable supply of electricity to the estimated two billion people living without electricity.

The program started in the second half of 2001. Basic studies were supported by ABB’s power transmission and distribution experts. In the next stage ABB will combine corporate and local resources to team up with international organizations, development agencies and non-governmental organizations. This team will recruit partners in an effort to electrify selected areas in the developing world.


Clean energy and the protection of biodiversity
In May 2001, ABB signed a three-year cooperation agreement with the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF). The agreement recognizes both parties’ common interests: ABB wants to promote its small-scale, distributed and clean energy solutions; and the WWF wants to protect biodiversity through new, less polluting energy policies.

ABB will provide funding and other resources. The first three joint projects have already started:

• Support of a pan-European campaign to promote clean and renewable energy sources and cogeneration
• Foundations for clean energy promotion in Poland
• Participation in the WWF’s Mekong River initiative, to incorporate alternative energy solutions in sustainable development plans for the region

Future joint activities aim to reduce ABB’s ecological impact and create new opportunities to promote clean, renewable and sustainable energy solutions. We hope to extend the cooperation to explore sustainable development goals and move toward long-term cooperation under the WWF’s Conservation Partnership scheme.

www.panda.org

Keeping climate change on everyone's agenda
Based on today’s best knowledge, ABB shares the view that climate change poses a real threat to the world. Greenhouse gas abatement is the biggest single environmental challenge today (see our position statement on page 60).

We need to keep these issues high on everyone’s agenda. One way ABB does this is through its involvement in the Business Environmental Leadership Council, part of the Pew Center
on Global Climate Change.

Based in the greater Washington, D.C. area, the Pew Center was founded in 1998 by the Pew Charitable Trust. It is dedicated to educating policymakers and the public about the causes and potential consequences of climate change, and encouraging curbs in greenhouse gas emissions.

The Pew Center is influential in the climate-change debate, thanks to its rolling program of workshops, media activities, reports and other publications. ABB is an active contributor to all these activities, serving as a case study in its report on corporate greenhouse gas reduction targets and providing input to other reports, especially those focusing on developing countries.

www.pewclimate.org