Greenpeace to I.T. Sector: Step Up Climate Action, Distance Yourselves from US Chamber of Commerce

The IT industry stands to profit
significantly by selling energy efficient tech solutions to reduce
greenhouse gases, yet has been dramatically outspent and mostly silent
in support of strong climate policies in the United States or
internationally. Instead, IT companies continue to fund the U.S.
Chamber of Commerce's regressive and destructive stance on climate
issues, even when unaligned with their own climate policies.

"Apple's recent bold move to
leave the U.S. Chamber of Commerce over its obstruction of government
efforts to address climate change contrasts strongly with its
competitors Google, Microsoft and IBM's relative inaction at this
crucial juncture for our climate," said Casey Harrell, Greenpeace
International's IT industry analyst. "IT companies can and should
publicly and demonstratively call for a change in the Chamber's
position on climate or leave the Chamber altogether."

Companies' clear public support
for strong emissions reductions is a key scoring criteria on
Greenpeace's leaderboard, along with the company's measurable,
economy-wide climate solutions, as well as concrete efforts to reduce
their own emissions. IBM, HP and Fujitsu occupy the top 3 places in
this assessment, but no company scores above 50 out of a possible 100.
Google- a new addition- comes in at number four, scoring 32.

The Smart 2020 report ( (www.smart2020.org)
commissioned by the IT industry itself, clearly outlines how IT
solutions have the potential to cut global GHG emissions by a
remarkable 15 percent by 2020.

"Even though the IT industry will
profit from strong emissions reduction targets, disappointingly, it is
not even close to its potential of leading the way to a low carbon
economy," added Harrell.. "IT giants like Microsoft, Google and IBM
need to put their weight behind a strong deal at Copenhagen now, or
else the world will lose out again to dirty industry's negative
lobbying and the U.S. Chamber's campaign to deny sound science and
public support for progress."

IBM holds the top spot on the
leaderboard due to an extensive range of climate solutions and action
to reduce its own emissions, but is only one point ahead of HP, which
has improved greatly since the last Greenpeace assessment in May. Both
HP and Toshiba show strong progress by providing more comprehensive
information on how their climate solutions can reduce global emissions.
Dell, Nokia and Sony all failed to show significant improvement in
their scores since May 2009.

Google has clearly set out a plan
for reducing emissions by 2030 but is has not yet spoken up on the need
for a strong global deal at Copenhagen. The CEO of Ericsson has made
prominent speeches on the urgency of climate change and the importance
of Copenhagen, but the leaders of Nokia, Dell, Microsoft and Sony,
among others stay silent on the most urgent issue facing the planet.

Sharp stands out as the only
Japanese company to indicate support for the strong reduction target of
the new Japanese Government. Panasonic, new to the leaderboard
assessment, can increase its score on several criteria for the next
assessment.

The next edition of the Cool IT leaderboard, with several new companies, will be released in early 2010