After Inhofes endorsement, Carly Fiorina challenges climate science — unlike the company she once ran!

HP recognizes that the costs of adapting to unmitigated climate change will likely far outweigh the costs of slowing it down, as noted in the Stern report. HP believes it is in both society’s and business’ interests to limit global temperature increase to 2°C from pre-industrial levels by the end of this century in order to avoid the most severe environmental, social and economic impacts of climate change.  HP supports the IPCC recommendation that global GHG emissions be reduced by well below half of the emission levels in 2000 by the middle of this century

Below is a Wonk Room repost from guest blogger and CAPAF Director of Climate Strategy, Daniel J. Weiss. At the end, I repost some of the statements from the company she once ran — like the one above — which are in stunning contrast to her own.  Some intrepid reporter should ask her whether she agrees with HP’s statements on climate science and the need for strong market-based climate action.

Following the endorsement of Senator Jim “the last flat-earther” Inhofe (R-OK) last Wednesday for her campaign to unseat Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA), ex-Hewlett Packard CEO Carly Fiorina questioned the science of climate change. Boxer, as the chair of the Senate environment committee, is the chamber’s leading advocate for action to create jobs, make America more energy independent, and cut global warming pollution. Ranking environment committee member Inhofe “” “Senator Climate Change Denier” “” led a failed boycott of Boxer’s Clean Energy Jobs and American Power Act (S. 1733). After news of Inhofe’s endorsement of Fiorina came out, a reporter asked whether she believes in global warming. Fiorina admitted she is skeptical about climate science:

I think we should have the courage to examine the science on an ongoing basis.

Fiorina’s refusal to recognize the science of climate change and her belief that cap and trade legislation “will kill jobs” puts her in opposition to California’s business and political leadership — and even the company she once ran!

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R-CA), the leader of the California Republican Party, recently noted that California is “already experiencing” the devastating impacts of global warming:

In California, we are already experiencing rising sea levels eroding our coastal infrastructure, reduced snow pack in the Sierra leading to prolonged droughts and more conflict over water, drier forests suffering more frequent and ferocious forest fires, and worsening smog-related public health threats and crop damage. The implications for our state if these trends continue are simply staggering.

Fiorini’s opposition to binding reductions of global warming pollution will make it very difficult to encourage innovation and create jobs, accord to her Silicon Valley neighbor, venture capitalist John Doerr, who testified in July that the United States “must put a price on carbon and a cap on carbon emissions” because “no long-term signal means no serious innovation at scale, which means fewer new American success stories.”

On the same day he endorsed Fiorina, Inhofe “proudly” declared in a speech on the Senate floor that 2009 is “the Year of the Skeptic.”

[JR:  What follows is my addition to Weiss's post.]

Fiorina was CEO of HP, until, Wikipedia notes, “In 2005, the Hewlett-Packard board forced Fiorina to resign.”  Ironically, HP itself has been unequivocal about climate science.  This is from their Global Citizenship Report 2008:

Our planet’s climate is changing, and scientific consensus is that greenhouse gas (GHG)¹ emissions are the main culprit. The effects are forecasted to be far-reaching and substantial. The IPCC Fourth Assessment Report, published in 2007, warned that unmitigated climate change would likely trigger a range of environmental problems threatening agriculture, natural habitats and communities in low-lying coastal areas.

The economic toll will be high as well. The cost of responding and adapting to unmitigated climate change could reach between 5 and 20 percent of annual global gross domestic product (GDP), according to the Stern Review on the Economics of Climate Change. Released in 2006, the report also estimates that mitigating climate change instead would cost approximately one percent of global GDP each year. To stave off these potential issues, negotiations under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change are aiming for an agreement in 2009 to reduce global emissions by at least 50 percent (compared with 1990 levels) by 2050….²

Hmm.  I wonder what conservative intellectual leader Newt Gingrich would say about HP having a Global Citizenship Report? — see Gingrich sums up conservative ethos: “I am not a citizen of the world! I think the entire concept is intellectual nonsense and stunningly dangerous.”

Even HP’s “About us” page has an impressive science-based “Global Issue Brief” on climate change, which states “HP’s position”:

HP recognizes that the costs of adapting to unmitigated climate change will likely far outweigh the costs of slowing it down, as noted in the Stern report. HP believes it is in both society’s and business’ interests to limit global temperature increase to 2°C from pre-industrial levels by the end of this century in order to avoid the most severe environmental, social and economic impacts of climate change.  HP supports the IPCC recommendation that global GHG emissions be reduced by well below half of the emission levels in 2000 by the middle of this century….

HP believes there are several key principles that should guide a climate change mitigation strategy, including:

• Policy frameworks that use market-based mechanisms to set clear, transparent and consistent price signals over the long term offer the best hope for unleashing needed innovation and competition.

Kudos to HP for these clear statements.  It be interesting to ask Fiorina if she agrees or disagrees with them.