News Article - 22 September 2008
Category: Environment

Some of the top business leaders in the UK have sent an open letter to the three main political parties urging transformational change to help accounting for carbon.

The heads of 18 major firms, including Shell, BAA and E.ON, called on Gordon Brown, David Cameron and Nick Clegg to create a cross-party consensus "on the scale and speed required" to lower the carbon emissions measurement of the economy.

According to the letter, "climate change poses global social, environmental and economic risks and demands a transformational change in how we manage our economy."

"Incremental change will not do."

The letter added that investment in carbon-reducing technologies, such as carbonaccounting software, should not be avoided despite the possible recession.

However, the news came in for criticism from environmental group Greenpeace.

"It's astounding that E.ON would call for action on climate change when they're agitating to build Britain's first coal-fired power stations in decades," said the organisation's communications director, Ben Stewart.

"It makes an environmentalist's jaw drop to see the BAA logo on this letter when they're trying to expand airports across the nation."

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