Exelon

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce is beginning to bleed members over its staunch opposition to climate legislation intended to reduce the nation's global warming emissions.

John Rowe, CEO of one of the nation’s largest electric utilities, announced the group's latest loss today: Exelon, a $19 billion company with 5.4 million electricity customers, will not renew its membership in the once-essential business group.

Exelon was the third utility in a week to announce it was leaving the Chamber, and one of a growing number of companies urging the business group's executives to change their tune on climate action. Another member, Nike, is under pressure from shareholders, who will be urging the company in a letter tomorrow to also dump the Chamber.

Rowe explained his support for climate legislation while announcing his company's intentions to leave the Chamber during the American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy national conference this morning:

“The carbon-based free lunch is over," the Exelon CEO said. "But while we can’t fix our climate problems for free, the price signal sent through a cap-and-trade system will drive low-carbon investments in the most inexpensive and efficient way possible.”

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Some of the world's largest businesses are calling for an international framework of standards to address climate change.

Despite the recession, many of these companies are also continuing their voluntary commitments to increase energy efficiency and reduce greenhouse gas emissions, feeling pressure to do so from both consumers and the inevitability of climate legislation.

Those are some of the findings of the The Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP), an organization that catalogs the climate change information of nearly 2000 companies, and AEA, an energy and climate change consultancy. Their new report, Climate Change in the Time of Global Recession, makes suggestions about how government and business can cooperate to address climate change while stimulating the green economy.

Paul Dickinson, CEO of CDP, explains why the business community is asking governments to coordinate efforts at the international climate talks in Copenhagen in December:

"The new framework must create markets that can link together and recognize the global nature of business.

"Business operations don’t stop at national boundaries, and internationally coordinated policy drivers are essential. Business is calling for these policies now, irrespective of the current economic challenges we are facing."