Agreement on sectoral approaches slipping away

Efforts to develop sectoral approaches to reducing greenhouse gas emissions did not go well at Copenhagen, according to the chair of the working group on long-term cooperative action (AWG-LCAⁱ). Many European companies have sectoral agreements as a way to shield them from carbon leakage risks. The Cement Sustainability Initiative (CSIⁱ), a member-led programme of the World Business Council for Sustainability Development (WBSCD), warned back in November that sectoral approaches were still causing confusion. The WBSCD describes a sectoral approach as “not a one-size-fits-all recipe, but a blend of policies and actions organized around the location of production facilities and each sector’s (and region’s) unique characteristics".

The CSI’s briefing on a sectoral approach can be found here:

http://www.wbcsdcement.org/pdf/WBCSD%20rev%20final%20low.pdf