TODAY: FOCUS ON RICHARD BARR,FEATURED COMMENTATOR ON ACCOUNTABILITY-CENTRAL;"CARBON: THE STAFF OF LIFE, THE BAIN OF DESTRUCTION"

BY: RICHARD BARR

His perspective: We will never make any progress on the fight against global warming until we put a price on carbon. There is no ESG and long-term sustainability factor more important than this one -- and it is Corporate America that must step up to the plate. The corporate discharge of CO2 into the atmosphere will continue at alarming rates until corporations are given an incentive to cut their emissions.

Highlights: Richard Barr, a long-time "Socially Responsible Investment" (SRI) portfolio manager with First Affirmative Financial Network, is now a featured commentator on the Accountability-Central Web site (a resource for leaders in the corporate, social and public sector, and for journalists and editors). He comments today on the need for reconciliation in Washington despite the relative death of bipartisanship in Washington in setting stringent limits on carbon emissions. "Whatever President Barack Obama promised at the Copenhagen Conference, he must deliver through the U.S. Congress. This means one thing: reconciliation,” he says. Indeed, the New York Times in a just-published editorial, observed: "In order to deliver on his promises to reduce America's greenhouse gas emissions by seventeen percent by 2020 and provide a chunk of $100 billion, Mr. Obama must persuade the Senate to approve a cap-and-trade bill -- a huge task."

"The search for a clean alternative must be incentivized to get power companies to build new and effective alternatives," Barr writes. Concurrent with that, Barr sees cap and trade for carbon as a "must-have." Adam Smith said "(Value) is adjusted...not by any accurate measure, but by the haggling and bargaining of the market, according to that sort of rough equality which, though not exact, is sufficient for carrying on the business of common life." For this to happen as Smith correctly predicted a new "Value" must be created by cap-and-trade. Carbon must have a price."

A cap-and-trade market, in theory, would benefit executives by giving them more certainty of future pollution costs and, therefore, investment decisions. Further, cap-and-trade would increase energy efficiency and renewable energy if Obama’s energy plan were enacted roughly as first presented. Even James Rogers, CEO of Duke Energy says the plan "won’t fulfill its potential unless there is a price on carbon."

Quoting Socialfunds.com on his Accountability-Central.com posting, Barr writes: "…Shareowners of the companies [that are the largest sources of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions] have a responsibility to guide the companies in which they invest on a course to successful climate change mitigation. Shareowners can accomplish this goal by such means as insisting that companies improve their climate change disclosures; adopt strategies that address the risks of climate change; reduce costs through energy efficiency; and refrain from intervening in the adoption of climate change legislation…"

Barr’s other topics for commentary include the House of Representatives’ energy bill, which has companies in a spin; his call for more corporate transparency in the proposed climate change legislation; and an extensive look at the Most Sustainable companies ("Corporate America gets an ESG report card") as assembled by Progressive Investor."We here in America have something to learn from Corporate Europe," he writes. The text of his column is available at Accountability-Central.com.