Position statements

The United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change is convinced that man-made emissions of greenhouse gases – mainly carbon dioxide – are influencing the global climate. In the Kyoto Protocol, agreed by 173 governments in 1997, industrialized countries agreed to cut their greenhouse gas emissions. Meanwhile, global emissions are steadily increasing, mainly due to the use of fossil fuels to meet the growing demand for energy.

ABB shares the UN’s concern about global warming and is committed to the pursuit of emission reductions. We see greenhouse gas abatement as the biggest single environmental challenge facing governments, industry, and society today and we are striving to provide solutions to help support the aims of the Kyoto Protocol. We regard the Kyoto Protocol as an important initial step in lowering greenhouse gas emissions and stabilizing global temperatures. Curbing these gases will address many of society’s unsustainable issues – environmental, economic, and social.

ABB believes that technical solutions as well as market instruments, such as the Flexible Mechanisms provided for in the Kyoto Protocol, are both needed to bring emissions under control.

To help customers meet their emission-reduction commitments, ABB will explore new opportunities that the Kyoto Flexible Mechanisms may open. The involvement of business and industry is essential for providing a cost-effective route to this goal. Society and consumers, too, are part of the problem and must be encouraged to exercise their influence to become part of the solution.

ABB has also joined “e-mission 55” – an international initiative of more than 170 businesses backing the Kyoto Protocol. This signals ABB’s clear commitment to climate protection. We join with our peer companies in calling on the governments of the world to ensure the immediate entry into force of the Kyoto Protocol. This will require ratification by at least 55 countries responsible for 55 percent of the carbon dioxide emissions from industrialized countries.

At the international congress of the World Energy Council (WEC) in September 1998, ABB initiated a global project to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by one billion tons annually by the year 2005. Progress is publicly reported on the WEC Web site by a database of identified greenhouse gas reduction projects worldwide. The one billion ton target has been reached and raised to two billion tons. This initiative moves the agenda from talk to action and raises public awareness.

In 1999, we set a target to reduce ABB’s own greenhouse gas emissions by one percent per annum over the next five years. Three years into the program, we are well ahead of this target.

ABB’s greatest contribution is through the high environmental performance of its products over their complete life cycles. Using life cycle assessments, ABB supplies products and systems that require less material, have higher efficiencies and consume less energy, which means less greenhouse gas emissions – particularly during long operating lifetimes. Applying ABB’s advanced industrial information technology for the control of integrated systems, electrical power grids, industrial processes and buildings, allows emissions to be reduced further.

By divesting its power generation activities, ABB shifted its focus from traditional large-scale power plants to the supply of electrical equipment and control systems for renewable and small-scale distributed power generation as a growth opportunity that complements existing power markets. These include the electrical equipment for wind turbines, microturbines, low emission fuel cells, and distributed applications of combined heat and power plants. They will help provide power supply utilities with a cleaner product mix and make a valuable contribution to preparing for the carbon-restrained world of the future.