COP21: Businesses hail Paris climate deal but voices of doubt emerge in oil and coal industry

Business lobby groups have hailed the historic agreement made in Paris at the COP21 climate summit on 12 December. The CBI called the deal an exciting opportunity, although some businesses are worried about the outcome.

As expected, the voices of concern came from the coal and oil industry, although the wider business world said it was keen on embracing the opportunities from the deal. Both sides, however, argued that international governments will play a key role.

"It will now be for governments to show how they plan to turn global ambition into national reality," said Carolyn Fairbairn, the director of the Confederation of British Industry. "Businesses will want to see domestic policies that demonstrate commitment to this goal and none more so than in the UK."

"As other nations start to play a greater role and increase their ambition, the UK needs a level playing field for carbon costs, so that our energy intensive industries can compete effectively in a global, low carbon market place."

The World Coal Association, representing big coal miners and traders, said that governments need to work together with businesses to find carbon capture, use and storage (CCUS) projects to invest in.

"Without action to support deployment of low emission coal technology it will not be possible to achieve the 2 degree climate target," the lobby group said in a statement.

Meanwhile, the oil industry, which is often under fire because of its contribution to CO2 emissions, said that working on climate change is not the only thing it can focus on right now.

A UK North Sea oil executive told the FT: "We already look at our carbon costs, but right now the industry has other challenges." With oil benchmark prices at all time low, the industry has made significant efforts to cut overhead costs, which is likely to be disturbed if extra energy saving investments have to be made.