Climate Action Hits Top of Agenda for U.S. Chamber

As world leaders gathered at the United Nations to discuss climate change this week, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce announced a plan to be part of the conversation and consider how it members can contribute to potential solutions.

Timed to the U.N. Climate Action Summit—which featured a fiery speech by 16-year-old activist Greta Thunberg  (opens in a new tab)—the Chamber announced a new task force that will study the  business community’s views on climate policy and steps that businesses can take to help protect the planet, according to Neil Bradley, the Chamber’s executive vice president and chief policy officer.

“This task force will enable us to become smarter about the impact of both existing policies and future proposals on the business community and proactively shape opportunities for the Chamber and our members to address climate change,” Bradley said in a statement  (opens in a new tab). “By establishing this group, the Chamber will have a formal process to continually engage companies across our broad membership on this important issue.”

The new approach  (opens in a new tab) reflects a shift for the group, which had once been a prominent skeptic  (opens in a new tab) on climate change. As Bloomberg notes  (opens in a new tab), the Chamber’s climate policy cost it several high-profile members, including Apple and Exelon, while the energy giant Royal Dutch Shell raised concerns about climate skeptics at the U.S. Chamber and other groups it was a member of. Some members had grown increasingly troubled about the impact of climate change and carbon pricing on their businesses.

“We think by pulling this broad cross section together we can get a picture of what it looks like for the entirety of the business community, which will help inform us on evaluating future policies down the road,” Bradley told Bloomberg.

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