As one of the nation’s largest consumers of coal and emitter of greenhouse gases, AEP takes Climate Change extremely seriously. We are taking significant steps to reduce our carbon footprint, including:

• Participating in a Chicago Climate Exchange commitment to reduce emissions by 6 percent by 2010.
• Developing technology to remove carbon dioxide from existing pulverized coal plants.
• Adding 1,000 megawatts of new wind generation.
• Offsetting all of our emissions from our corporate automotive and aircraft fleet.
• Tripling our investment in forestry projects.
• Improving the efficiency of existing coal plants so they emit fewer greenhouse gases.
• Improving the availability of the Donald C. Cook Nuclear plant, which emits no greenhouse gases.

You can learn more about what AEP is doing to address climate change here

Learn more about the definition and issues of climate change from these diverse government and international organizations.

• United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
• Climate Leaders
• Chicago Climate Exchange
• Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)
• European Union (EU)
• e8
• Asia Pacific Partnership on Clean Development & Climate
• International Emissions Trading Association

US Environmental Protection Agency

According to the US EPA Climate Change refers to any significant change in measures of climate (such as temperature, precipitation, or wind) lasting for an extended period (decades or longer). Climate change may result from:

• natural factors, such as changes in the sun’s intensity or slow changes in the Earth’s orbit around the sun;
• natural processes within the climate system (e.g. changes in ocean circulation);
• human activities that change the atmosphere’s composition (e.g. through burning fossil fuels) and the land surface (e.g. deforestation, reforestation, urbanization, desertification, etc.)

Click here to visit the EPA website for more information.

Climate Leader

Climate Leaders is an EPA industry-government partnership that works with companies to develop long-term comprehensive climate change strategies. Partners set a corporate-wide greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction goal and inventory their emissions to measure progress. By reporting inventory data to the EPA, Partners create a lasting record of their accomplishments. Partners also identify themselves as corporate environmental leaders and strategically position themselves as climate change policy continues to unfold. AEP participates in the EPA’s Climate Leaders Program.

Click here to visit the Climate Leaders’ website for more information.

Chicago Climate Exchange

AEP was a founding member of the Chicago Climate Exchange and continues to be actively involved with CCX. CCX CEO Richard Sandor is a member of the AEP Board of Directors. AEP Strategic Policy Analysis Vice President Bruce Braine serves as a member of the CCX Board of Directors.

Our commitment to CCX extends beyond the trading floor. Dozens of people across AEP have been instrumental in helping CCX establish the rules and architecture of the system and ensuring AEP complies with its carbon reduction commitment. For example, Bruce Braine, vice president of Strategic Policy Analysis, is on the CCX board of directors; Dan Francis, manager of Policy Analysis, is AEP’s representative on the CCX offset committee; and Senior Engineer Greg McCall, under the direction of Environmental Services Vice President John McManus, manages our compliance and accounting of the CO2 reductions we committed. Other groups actively engaged in CCX activities include Fuel, Emissions and Logistics and Commercial Operations. Many others in our power plants, transmission group and at corporate headquarters have had a role in taking the actions that will allow AEP to meet its commitment, such as improving the efficiency of existing power plants and reducing the leakage rate of sulfur hexafluoride (SF6), a potent GHG, from transformers by approximately 90 percent. These actions are ongoing across the company.

Click here to visit the Chicago Climate Exchange’s’ website for more information.

Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has been established by World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) to assess scientific, technical and socio- economic information relevant for the understanding of climate change, its potential impacts and options for adaptation and mitigation. It is currently finalizing its Fourth Assessment Report “Climate Change 2007”, also referred to as AR4. The reports by the three Working Groups provide a comprehensive and up-to-date assessment of the current state of knowledge on climate change. The Synthesis Report integrates the information around six topic areas.

Click here to visit the IPCC website for more information.

European Union

EU has developed a top 10 Questions & Answers on Climate Change. According to the European Commission, climate change is one of the greatest environmental, social and economic threats facing the planet.

Click here to visit the EU website for more information.

e8

Created in the wake of the 1992 Rio Summit, the e8 promotes sustainable development through electricity sector projects and human capacity building activities in developing nations worldwide. Major global environmental and social issues that affect the electric utility industry are considered to be the top priorities of the e8. The issues of sustainable development, climate change, social trust, and internationalisation are the focus of the e8’s actions.

AEP is a member of the e8 and holds leadership positions within the organization. AEP President, Chairman and CEO Mike Morris was named a director of e8 in 2007.

Click here to visit the E8 website for more information.

Asia Pacific Partnership on Clean Development & Climate

The Asia-Pacific Partnership on Clean Development and Climate is an innovative new effort to accelerate the development and deployment of clean energy technologies.

While each of the Partners has different natural resource endowments, and sustainable development and energy strategies, Partners are already working together and will continue to work to achieve common goals. By building on the foundation of existing bilateral and multilateral initiatives, the Partners will enhance cooperation to meet both our increased energy needs and associated challenges, including those related to air pollution, energy security, and greenhouse gas intensities.

AEP is a member of the Asia-Pacific Partnership (APP). AEP hosted the first week-long conference with counterparts from Australia, China, India, Japan and South Korea (formally known as the Republic of Korea) to facilitate information sharing and power generation site visits as part of ongoing efforts to address climate change and encourage clean development.

Click here to visit Asia Pacific Partnership for more information.

A note about climate change terminology:

The current accepted term for the climate changing impact of emissions of a particular set of actions is carbon footprint. However, this is not strictly correct as carbon is different from carbon dioxide, and it is the latter which is the greenhouse gas with the largest impact on our climate. LiveNeutral will use the term “carbon footprint” for as long as it is most easily understood, but we hope to see a move towards “climate footprint,” or a similar term which more accurately describes that which is being measured .