This week at the climate talks in Poznan Poland, CEOs from ABB Ltd, American Electric Power, CLP Holdings Limited, EDF Group, Eskom Holdings Limited, Gaz de France, Statkraft AS, Suez, The Kansai Electric Power Co., and The Tokyo Electric Power Co. released a detailed report. 

In cooperation with the World Business Council for Sustainable Development, the report demonstrates that enough low-carbon technologies exist and can be implemented to help the world avoid many damages from climate change.  Examining and analysing each technology, the report discusses what policy is needed at national and international levels to successfully achieve deployment.

"In the coming decades," the CEOs say in the report, "the world will need double today's power generation. We in the power sector have a strong opportunity to take a lead in combating climate change. But we cannot do this alone. We need to work with governments and other stakeholders to find solutions. We realize some of these changes will take many years, but there is no time to lose and it is only through combined efforts that we will succeed in creating a low-carbon, sustainable energy future."

The report, entitled "Power to Change: A business contribution to a low-carbon electricity future" builds on an interim report released in Bali in 2007.  Policy thinking was tested in talks with China, Japan and South Africa to arrive at the recommendations presented in the report. 

"About 41 per cent of global energy-related carbon dioxide emissions come from the electricity sector," said Matthew Bateson, WBCSD's managing director of Energy and Climate. "It will be a challenge to cut those emissions while maintaining economic development and sustaining the social benefits provided by electricity, but, given the need for new investment in the industry, it could also be an opportunity."

The sector operates on long-term investments, so decisions made today will persist for the next 40 years or so, if not longer. So it is essential that the right decisions are taken today."

The CEOs say business cannot address the challenge of climate change alone and that urgent action from governments is needed. "The recent crisis in the global financial markets must not be allowed to stifle or delay critical infrastructure investments at a time when these are so badly needed," they say.

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