Richard Moore held a roundtable on global warming today.
The state treasurer — and Democratic gubernatorial candidate — hosted representatives of five North Carolina corporations at his office this morning to discuss their strategies to fight global warming emissions, John Murawski reports.
Moore's invite was timed with the release of the "Carbon Disclosure Project Report 2007," an annual tally of global warming strategies by 315 worldwide companies, including some of the biggest in this state.
With responsibility of overseeing the nation's ninth largest pension fund, Moore said his interest was pushing the state farther along toward energy efficiency and renewable energy. He added that global warming not only poses business risks but also creates business opportunities. Specifically, he would like to see North Carolina develop agricultural fuels to revive the farming sector.
"The problem is we don't have an overwhelming cash crop in North Carolina with what's happened to tobacco," Moore said.
More after the jump.
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All the corporate reps touted their commitment to the environment, even though two electric utilities present — Raleigh-based Progress Energy and Charlotte-based Duke Energy — have come in for criticism from environmentalists for not doing enough.
Duke Energy is one of the nation's largest producers of carbon dioxide — the greenhouse gas blamed for global warming — and the company is planning to build a new coal-burning power plant near Charlotte.
Answering critics who have urged Fortune 500 corporations to divest stock ownership in polluters, RBC Centura Senior Manager of Environmental Risk Management countered: "You have a lot more ability to influence when you are engaged than when you're disengaged."
The company reps said the nation needs one national policy, not 50 state-by-state approaches to global warming. And they also encouraged more government subsidies for research and development of energy alternatives.
"We live in a capitalistic society where dollars follow science, dollars follow the marketplace," Moore said. "The science [of global warming] is certain."
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