Climate politics and the Southern Co.

Last week we brought you news of the excellent database launched by the Center for Global Development showing carbon dioxide emissions from the world's power plants. Now a British newspaper has used that database as a starting point to illustrate the close ties between a major greenhouse gas polluter and the Bush administration, which has been reluctant to take strong steps to curb global warming pollution -- and has even tried to deny the reality of the problem despite the scientific consensus that the threat is real and demands immediate action.

The CARMA database shows that the top carbon dioxide-polluting company in the United States -- and the sixth-worst in the world -- is the Atlanta-based Southern Co., which serves more than 4 million people throughout the Southeast. One Southern Co. coal-fired plant in Juliette, Ga. releases more carbon dioxide each year than Brazil's entire power sector, according to CARMA. Not surprisingly, the company does not support mandatory caps or taxes on carbon emissions, which it claims are likely to slow economic growth.

A story in today's Independent UK points out that Southern in turn is one of the largest financiers of the Republican Party, whose leadership has also resisted carbon caps and taxes. Reports the Independent:

Southern's employees handed George Bush $217,047 to help him get elected twice, and they and the company have contributed an extraordinary $6.2m to Republican campaigns since 1990 according to the Centre for Responsive Politics.

The Independent also notes that one of the main lobbyists for the Southern Co. when Bush took office was none other than Haley Barbour, former chair of the Republican Party and the recently re-elected governor of Mississippi. Barbour "played a crucial role in persuading [Bush] to back away from his original campaign promise to reduce CO2 emissions when he first ran for president in 2000," the paper reports.

On Friday, the Nobel Prize-winning Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change released its fourth report, which summarizes the global warming problem for policy makers. Citing concerns over species extinction and the growing risk of extreme weather events, it argues strongly in favor of taking immediate action to mitigate and adapt to a climate that's already changing.

And in a rebuke to Southern Co. and others who argue against taking action on economic grounds, the IPCC summary says that combating greenhouse gas pollution would not lead to economic ruin. "There is high agreement and much evidence of substantial economic potential for the mitigation of global greenhouse gas emissions over the coming decades," the report says -- if governments adopt the right policies and incentives now.