Nike, Starbucks call for climate policies, renewable energy

The coalition appealed for steep cuts in U.S. greenhouse-gas emissions, investment in renewable energy from the wind and sun, and limits on polluting coal-fired power plants. Congress and President-elect Barack Obama should take action on the matter early in 2009, they said.

The proposals would place a cost on carbon dioxide, the main gas blamed for rising temperatures and sea levels, said Mindy Lubber, president of Ceres, a coalition of investors and environmental activists. That will encourage capital markets to invest in job-creating technologies, she said.

"Rather than ignore risk, address the risk and turn it into an opportunity," Lubber said Wednesday in a conference call. "We need to send the right and honest market signal. Carbon pollution has a cost."

The group of companies, which includes Sun Microsystems Inc. and Timberland Co., announced its goals Wednesday with Ceres, whose more than 70 institutional investors control assets of at least $7 trillion. Ignoring the effects of climate change will increase operating costs, said Ben Packard, vice president at Starbucks.

"Starbucks relies on an agricultural product: coffee," Packard said. Global warming will trigger "significant impacts to the regions and most importantly to the people who grow our coffee."

The firms called for cutting heat-trapping emissions 25% below 1990 levels by 2020 and limiting the construction of coal plants that do not capture emissions. Existing plants that release carbon pollution should be phased out by 2030.