night. tonight the republican candidates for president will take the stage in an encounter sponsored by the fox business network. most of the candidates are skeptical about human activity having much to do with changing the climate while the business world coverd by and watching fox business is already thinking about how to get ready for a changed planet and protecting future business. it's a clash of politics and commerce and it is unclear whether fox plans to meet it head-on. business, politics and the

planet, it's the inside story welcome to inside story, i'm ray suarez. when republican office holders talk about climate change they usually do one of a couple of things. they doubt the science is real, they rail against the national response or they it is dismiss any response as a job killer. economically more harmful than doing nothing. at the same time business and the climate haven't stood still. while a notable number of companies, especially corporation r corporate leaders continue to support and deny the consensus around human-driven climate change, the reality is

that companies, many of them, for selfish reasons, support. the president rattled off the communities of interest change. >> look, if anybody still wants to dispute the science around climate change, you will be pretty lonely because you will be debating our military, most of american's business leaders, the majority of american people almost all of the science community rupert murdoch says it was said to be responsive to needs and priorities. last year a city group reported concluded that fighting climate

change will actually cost business less money, at least a trillion dollars less than the eventual cost of doing nothing about it, and some of the biggest oil companies in the world came together last year to announce combatting climate change is now a priority, including bp. >> so we got together ten of the largest companies in the world. these companies produced 10% of all the energy production in the world and 20% of the oil and gas in the world. international oil conditions, national oil companies came together given the priority, businesses begun to place on mitigating climate change, aa raft of questions suggested themselves to both parties. what is the best way to tax carbon emissions, how do you transition to sustainable energy with minimal economic disruption. the editor of fox business and one of tonight's mopped raters will question the candidates tonight about business-related issues and have spoken about

climate change in the past >> i don't know how you feel about this, but i became a doubter when they rebranded the issue and started calling it climate change. it was brilliant on the part of environmentalists because it coverd any contin gen stee-- contingency. everything is climate change. trying arguing with that one business politics and the planet, is there a certain dissonance involved as the country is staking its future on the opposition to the paris climate deal and denying any policy that accepts that something is going on. i'm joined by bob ingliss, the director of republican n and kelly senior program of series, another a partner in the law firm sullivan and wooster and director for u.s. climate and

renewable energy policy at the world wildlife fund. let me start with you. privately, quietly, behind closed doors, are corporations already not only accepting that this is happening, but making plans actively for a future where it is happening? >> without question. that's true across the spectrum of companies. that's anybody who is exposed to climate change from a weather risk standpoint, but even the entity companies on the side lobbying for change. everyone recognises that this transition is an absolute fact. climate change is here. it is going to accelerate, we're going to have to change our behaviour because of it. fundamentally we will go away from fossil fuels to a clean energy-based economy and that transition is inevitable. it is just a question of timing.

everybody has started to plan directly, indirectly, behind the scenes. every major corporation is thinking about this how should we understand the inaction when it comes to pushing along candidates in parties they support, the quiet public posture on some of these very same questions when they're trying to both build their own brands and also build consensus needed? >> i think there are a couple of factors there. one is the obvious that there are a number of corporations that have a real stake in the existing status quo for fossil fuel production, fossil fuel use. the other piece is the fear of change. this is an unknown and very unmanageable unknown because we don't understand what the actual impacts will be despite the modelling. no-one is certain what the direct combakss to a business are. against that it is difficult to take a specific stand. they have limited the amount of

energy that corporate america has put behind asking for movement on climate change you climbed on early and paid a political price for it. is it fair to say that the business, same business interests that support republican candidates are also long since converts but don't say so publicly? >> yeah. that's true. there are many businesses that are already making plans and some unusual folks, people you might not expect. so, for example, exxom mobil is for the policy we're excited about, which is a neutral border adjustable carbon tax. it seems maybe out of character, but if you think it threw it makes sense like a company to be for something like that why don't they push their

political allies to try to start getting everybody else on board? >> well, good question. i think what it means is that there are other priorities that they have in their concern that if they start advancing the proposition that we're talking about, a republican en dot org, this tax, it is a way of getting the whole world in on this, that it would endanger some other things that are legislated priorities for them, but when it becomes topical and by talking about it here you're helping it to become topical, we expect them to move that up their list of priorities kelly, help me understand the quiet activity. why aren't companies making a virtue out of this if it's something they've internally decided already to do? >> i actually work with the companies that speak up.

so from my perspective they are louder than they have ever been in the past. to your point, many companies are worried about running their businesses, so they're simply and wisely making commitments around renewable energy. 60% of the companies have in fact done that. they've set goals and they're moving towards them. 1800 have signed our climate declaration that declares that technical tackling climate changes is one of the great opportunities for america. 154 major companies stood with the president before paris to say first we are for paris and we're going to move on our own operational leadership, our own commitments, our own mitigation. that was significant. if you look at the companies that stood with the administration, they span the political and geographic spectrum. so from bank of america to cargo, to gold man sachs, to general motors and microsoft.

that's one example of one of the pre-paris commitments that companies offered, the six major u.s. banks stood up, food companies stood up and said we need to do something about this. we understand that acting now acting later, and are, importantly, we're willing to look at our footprint and take action i have to go to a break now, but we will speak about the politics of this and why parties are not hedging their bits the way businesses are. the gap between business and the republican party is one thing. whether the business leaders use their influence to make change in their political allies is another. business politics and the planet. it's inside story.

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you're watching inside story. i'm ray suarez. insurers wonder if they can ever under write the coast of another hurricane katrina. mirror rigourous efforts to limb emissions. huge bets are being placed on research into renewables. they try to anticipate the costs of sea level rise. all this goes on as one of america's two governing parties talks as if science predictions are hoaxes accusing international conferences of lying to increase governmental control and so on. is fox business news home of tonight's republican debate ignoring the widening gap. you've been around washington for a long time. you under how the game is played. isn't there normally on any issue a convergence when you've got this kind of gap?

>> absolutely. in the past if you think about the republican party, and i was working in congress when ingliss was there, there was a time when republicans and democrats came together around some of these issues. we found ourselves in a place now where the republican party has isolated itself from what really are the facts of the science. yet we are seeing all this opportunity. what we have going forward is economic opportunity for investment for business, we have economic opportunity for home owners who are investing in clean energy. i see us with a very interesting opportunity now and today for the parties to come together because it's not just about climate change. it's about our economic future. it's about the technologies that are going to be driving our future if there's a growing consensus in those places that are very influential in politics, the

bundlers, the giving groups, the pacts to support candidates, how come that hasn't changed what has happened on the end of people running the campaigns and framing strategies for running them some snichlt we find ourselves in a difficult political situation. we have all experienced the road blocks we have. if you talk to the businesses that we spend our time with, they're working towards climate change now. somehow it has not penetrated to capitol hill in the same way within the republican party. i think we all have to work toward opening those doors. in the meantime, everybody is moving forward what is the crowbar that helps force that change. is it losing a couple of elections, is it reading poll results that show you're losing certain segments of the population? what eventually, and not just on

this issue, but on any issue, spears a party towards rethinking a policy? >> the reality, i think, is that politics is a lagging indicator. it's the leading indicators come from the smart money. really the smaert money is working with, as kelly said before, on showing the way forward. politicians eventually catch up to the smart money and even though they do lag behind that, they will get eventually to that place and the thing that i would offer is some encurrent is that there is-- encurrent is there is moving towards it. you had to be very antagonistically athiesti. it is a big improvement in the journey of faith towards the action on climate.

now it is people are looking for ways to say innovation will solve climate change to which we say you're exactly right. innovation will solve is now. have do we operationalise, how do we make real that innovation. so there is movement all right. i think we will even see it tonight. i have no guarantees, but i hope i'm not disappointed tonight. i think we will see candidates that are trying to move away from the rhetoric that so energized the base coming out of the great recession, and now trying to make the philanthropist toward following that-- pivot towards following that smart money do you buy that, that there tonight? >> i don't know about tonight, but i think before the election is over we will see movement. we are starting to see this convergence where business and policy come together and people start to see a

consistent message and i think this election really will be one where climate change is a factor. we see it now. we saw some late movement in subsidy policy for renewables which surprised everyone, but we got bipartisan support across the board because renewables create jobs. there are more solar jobs in the u.s. now than oil and gas jobs is big business just winking at the republican party making one set of business decisions around climate change while candidates continue to encourage denial and scepticism. it's inside story.

welcome back to inside story. i'm ray suarez. we're looking at climate, business and what's presumed to be the party of big business or

other considerations. minimum wage, tax laws, worker organiser rights is important as climate policy so that the gap makes perfect sense of the still with me attorney and former congress man and an officer from the world wildlife fun. is there a hierarchy of values that help to explain this gap? they won't push on the climate change because they have other irons in the fire, not wanting support for rising minimum wage and other issues at stake. >> in part yes, that's true. i mean businesses are very innovative and they're practical and finding ways to purchase renewable energy. they're making solutions, cutting deals, they're settling power purchase agreements, they

are being creative in their efforts to solve climate change and they're making a lot of progress as has been noted. this is the leading indicator of progress, look at what the business community is doing. the place to not look are those who continue to be recalcitrant on capitol hill. republican colleagues are helping us to do that, to look at this as the economic imperative that it represents. there is an increasing consensus that we need to figure out how to price carbon and that is a productive conversation where i think we're really going to see some bridge building and my guess is that the republican candidates for president eventually will, in fact, create a narrative about solving the climate crisis. they will have their own language and they will have their own positions, but overall there is no question about the direction this is moving in and i believe we are going to see

some very solid solutions very, very soon are you as optimistic as kelly, that we're going to see that change and will we see it as soon as this campaign cycle? >> i am optimistic. i think we're going to see a shift in the politics. it's hard to be out on a limb for yourself for a long time when everybody else moves around you. you referred to earlier cops making big bets. in the renewable energy arena companies today, three years ago no company had bought a wind farm or a solar farm. in 2013 six companies did. it doubled in the capacity in 2014 and there was 3.4 gig awatts of power brought on in deals that corporate america cut last year and renewable energy as a whole was 60% of all the new electricity capacity added to the grid last year. corporate purchasing by passing

their utilities and doing-- utilities and doing this on their own they were going to sai money. the technologies are available, costs will come down. when people say that it's not ready, they're just not seeing what's happening, but the change is upon us when is it going to martin o'malley -- going to move to something that you try to monetize by gelg out there and saying we're the company that's doing this? >> we're seeing that. we're seeing people talking about the renewable deals they're cutting in corporate america. behind the scenes there's a lot of money flowing into this transition. when you step back and look at the transition to the clean energy economy, just a piece of what climate change reaction is, it is the single biggest deployment of capital in human history. i assure you there is a lot of money lining up to follow that path to end the point about the politicians eventually following that same line of money?

>> it seems logical season? >> i think so. not during the primaries, but before the end is that part of the pivot to the general election? >> yes. i think so. it's - it becomes a political necessity, of course, as you face a larger electorate. the narrative here that i think will become operative is this, we haven't liked the solution we've seen yet. we saw cap in trade who is involved a larger government. we hear of clean power plan. it involves a regulatory approach. we don't like those solutions is what conservatives will be saying, but we could accept a solution. in fact get behind and be excited about a solution that eliminates all the subsidies for all the feels and that attaches all-- fuels and that attaches

all costs of fuels i thank you all my guests , all my guests. the director of republican en, a partner in the law firm and senior program director and environmental advocacy group. i will back in a moment on a final thought on believing what is true. stay with us on inside story.

business people have been cautious about putting capital at risk to forego using abundant cheap fossil fuels to begin the shift to expensive and untested technologies. after all we can't say for absolute certain what's going to be happening in the atmosphere in 2025, 2035 and beyond and new technology has to be paid for now with today's dollars. is the cost of alternative energy sources continue to drop and the public becomes more concerned about the attention getting weather events that take lives and cost billions, you're hearing more and more the business case for getting corporations ready for a changed planet. business is responding. while the politicians funded by business interests have so far not changed or not changed very much what they say. sometimes public policy takes on the flavour of

theology, you, senator, governor have stated your position and modifying it, even in the light of new information as compromise, as surrender and if part of the party's brand is a disstate for presentation, that may take precedence to what you see happening or what you don't see happening. sips modern politics allows a political candidate to choose from a menu of potential truths to embrace. one result is that if the u.s. finally does unequivocally join the battle against human-driven climate change, everything we do will be more expensive, harder and take longer because we waited and though you probably won't hear that in tonight's g.o.p. debate, that's just not good business. i'm ray suarez and that's the inside story.

reports of arrests a day after chain bombings jakarta killed seven people including five attackers. you're watching al jazeera. also on the program. >> they use it as a weapon of war, food as a weapon of crime >. >> yes. i am angry republican presidential front run