Cupping their hands near holes drilled for cable routing, workers at the Boeing Company’s 1.6-hectare data processing site near Seattle noticed this year that air used to keep the computers cool was seeping through floor openings.
波音公司位於西雅圖郊區的數據處理中心占地1.6公頃，工作人員在為架設線纜所鑿出的小孔旁將兩手托成杯狀。他們今年發現，用於降低電腦溫度的空氣已改自地板小孔洩出。

Mindful of the company’s drive to slash electricity consumption by 25 percent, they tucked insulation into holes there and at five similar sites. The resulting savings are projected at $55,000, or some 685,000 kilowatt hours of electricity a year.
有鑑於公司決心減少25%用電量，他們將絕緣材料塞入那裡與另外5個類似位置的小孔。估計每年約可為公司省下5.5萬美元電費，也就是68萬5,000度電。

Yet Boeing’s goal is not just to save money. The hope is to keep pace with other companies that have joined in a vast global experiment in tracking the carbon dioxide emissions generated by industry.
然而波音的目標不只是省錢。一些企業已相繼加入一項追蹤產業二氧化碳排放量的大型全球性實驗計畫。波音希望能跟上。

Boeing and other enterprises are voluntarily doing what some might fiercely resist being forced to do: submitting detailed reports on how much they emit, largely through fossil fuel consumption, to a central clearinghouse.
波音等企業自願採取部分人士可能強烈反對被迫為之的具體措施：向一個中央資訊交換所提交報告，詳列主要因使用化石燃料而排放的二氧化碳量。

The information flows to the Carbon Disclosure Project, a small nonprofit organization based in London that sifts through the numbers and generates snapshots by industry sectors in different nations.
「碳公布計畫」（CDP）是總部設在倫敦的小型公益組織，負責蒐集並過濾這些數據，進而呈現不同國家不同產業的排碳概況。

By giving enterprises a road map for measuring their emissions and pointing out how they compare with their peers, experts say, the voluntary project is persuading companies to change their energy practices well before many governments step in to regulate emissions.
專家指出，這項自願計畫為企業提供具體評估碳排放量的路線圖，並呈現與同業的比較結果，已讓部分企業願意遠在許多政府當局開始規範碳排放之前，就主動改變能源消耗方式。

Scientists estimate that industry and energy providers produce nearly 45 percent of the heat-trapping emissions that contribute to global warming. While some governments are convinced that reining in such pollution is crucial to protecting the atmosphere, a binding global pact is not on the immediate horizon, as negotiations in Copenhagen showed in December.
科學家估計，產業與能源供應業合計製造近45%溫室氣體。有些政府認為抑制這種汙染是保護大氣的關鍵，然而去年12月哥本哈根全球氣候變遷會議顯示，具約束力的全球協定一時仍不可得。

Until broad regulation is at hand, many investors and company executives say, voluntary reporting programs like the Carbon Disclosure Project may be the best way to leverage market forces for change.
許多投資人與企業高層表示，在廣泛的管理辦法出爐之前，類似CDP的自願通報方案可能是以市場力量帶動改變的上策。

They say the project sends a message that a company that moves to curb emissions now is girded for the future and therefore worthy of investment.
他們指出，計畫傳達的一個訊息是，現在以具體行動抑制碳排放的企業等於在為未來準備，值得投資。

“With the regulatory framework changing, how companies handle carbon is a core risk factor,” said Jack Ehnes, chief executive of Calstrs, the California teachers’ pension fund. “Smart companies will take C.D.P. information and realign their strategies.”
加州教師退休基金Calstrs執行長厄尼斯說：「在管理架構改變的局面下，企業如何處理碳排放已是核心風險因素。聰明的企業會善用CDP的資訊，重新規畫策略。」

Mary Armstrong, Boeing’s vice president for environment, health and safety, traces her company’s energy focus back to 2007, when she first saw the forms that companies fill out for the disclosure project.
瑪麗‧阿姆斯壯是波音主管環境、衛生及安全的副總裁。她將公司的能源重點上溯到2007年。當時她首次看到參加CDP計畫企業所填表格。

“The questions take you through and say, ‘Do you have environmental performance targets?’ We didn’t, but now we do,” she said. The companies’ individual responses are posted at the project’s Web site.
她說：「表列問題鉅細靡遺，而且會問，『貴公司有無環境表現目標？』我們當時沒有，現在有了。」CDP的專屬網站公布這些企業的個別回應。

In contrast to the United States, European Union countries already regulate carbon dioxide emissions from their most energy-intensive industries through a cap and trade program, and Japan polices energy consumption itself.
不同於美國，歐盟國家已經開始透過總量管制與交易制度規範最耗能產業的二氧化碳排放量，日本則是自主管控能源消耗。

Paul Dickinson, the founder and chief executive of the Carbon Disclosure Project, is quick to acknowledge that his group is no substitute for strong government regulation. But he argues that the voluntary project offers a less confrontational path toward reining in emissions, even in relatively unregulated markets like China’s and India’s.
CDP創辦人兼執行長狄金森指出，這項計畫無法取代強有力的政府管理。不過他認為這項自願計畫提供一種衝突性較小的途徑去抑制排放，即使在管理相對鬆散的市場如中國大陸與印度亦然。

Yet even as the Carbon Disclosure Project has established itself as the standard for emissions measurement methods, it has stirred some skepticism. Critics say that the emissions figures do not have to be verified through external audits, as financial figures from publicly traded companies must be.
CDP雖已成為排放估計方法的標準，卻也引起一些質疑。批評者指出，排放數據不像上市企業的財務數據般須經外界稽核。

Nonetheless, 2,500 of the world’s largest companies completed at least part of the project’s questionnaire last year, from the energy conglomerate Gazprom in Russia to Huaxin Cement in China.
儘管如此，全球規模最大企業中已有2500家於去年至少填報CDP的部分問卷，包括俄羅斯國營天然氣公司與中國大陸的華新水泥。

Abyd Karmali, global head of carbon markets for Bank of America, likens the disclosure project to the advent of general accounting principles, which enable investors to compare financial performance and move dollars accordingly.
美國銀行全球碳市場總裁卡馬利將CDP喻為一般會計原則的問世。一般會計原則使投資人得以比較金融表現，據以移動資金。

“It is very difficult to translate carbon-related risk into standardized disclosure, so it is a fantastic contribution,” he said.
他說：「很難將與碳有關的風險量化為標準化公開數據。因此，這是很大的貢獻。」

But others have their doubts. “There is disclosure, and then so what?” said Hewson Baltzell, the co-founder of Innovest, a financial research firm that gathered figures for the disclosure project the first several years. “They’ve dipped their toe in the water on asking companies about performance, but not very far.”
然而其他人士對此持疑。起初幾年為CDP蒐集數據的金融研究公司Innovest共同創辦人鮑柴爾說：「數據公開，然後呢？它們已經試著要求企業說明表現，但做得還不夠。」

原文參照：
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/29/business/energy-environment/29degrees.html  

2010-02-02/聯合報/G9版/UNITEDDAILYNEWS 陳世欽 原文請見2月2日紐時周報八版上