Government officials and others who are opposed to the Kyoto accords, the international agreement to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in hopes of slowing global climate change, should talk to Cathy Lee and Paul Nace. Both run businesses in Maine that are profiting, or hope to, from opportunities arising from the agreement. Their experiences belie the notion that environmental regulations are bad for business.

Ms. Lee runs a company in Westbrook that is currently working with landfills in South Africa that want to sell the credits they get for capturing methane, a greenhouse gas. The deal so far involves entities in France and Japan as well. Mr. Nace has started a company in Rumford that makes an additive for biodiesel, a cleaner burning fuel much in demand in Europe, from wood waste. It is looking for customers.

“I’m the poster child for a Maine business that can take advantage of the Kyoto agreement,” Mr. Nace, president of Maine BioProducts LLC, said at a seminar on the international business of climate change last week. The seminar was jointly hosted by the Maine International Trade Center, the Environmental and Energy Technology Council of Maine and U.K. Trade and Investment.

British business and government officials were in Maine to spread the message that strong environmental regulations can be a boon to private enterprise. Rhian Chilcott of the Confederation of British Industry said it is “absolute rubbish” that Kyoto will harm business. In Britain, she said, businesses understand that reducing energy consumption not only reduced greenhouse gas emissions, but also saves them money. The country’s largest pharmacy chain, for example, realized it could save a substantial amount of money simply by asking employees to turn off lights when a store is closed and taking other steps that didn’t cost the company anything.

Ms. Chilcott believes the tide is turning in the United States. Privately American businesspeople tell her that steps must be taken to combat global warming and there is evidence of progress in Congress as well. Although the Senate vote to reject the Kyoto accord in 1997 was unanimous, last year, the Senate split 55-43 on killing the McCain-Lieberman Climate Stewardship Act, which was supported by both of Maine’s senators.

The Maine Legislature last year passed a detailed action plan outlining what the state could do to cut its greenhouse gas emissions. This and regional efforts are being noticed at international meetings.

Further, companies, both large and small, are eager to find new technologies to help them meet national and international pollution reduction requirements, according to Aiden Williamson, a former banker and now a partner with Oury Clark, a British professional services firm. Companies are very receptive to energy savings ideas – from anywhere.

Some of them could be from Maine.