World Economic Forum wants $10tn to save the world
The Guardian, Jan. 30, 2009
More
than $10 trillion must be invested in clean technology between now and
2030 to spare the Earth from an unsustainable increase in global
temperature, the World Economic Forum warned today.
A
report from the body that organises the Davos meeting of political and
business leaders said at least $515bn should be spent annually on
measures to limit carbon emissions.
Although
the worsening financial and economic crisis has pushed climate change
down the Davos agenda this year, the WEF study stressed that countries
needed to vastly increase spending on safeguarding the environment.
Green
investment has increased more than fourfold, from $30bn to $140bn,
between 2004 and 2008, but would still need to triple to meet the
target set by the WEF and the co-authors of the report, New Energy
Finance. Outlays of $500bn a year would be needed to prevent a rise of
more than 2C in global temperatures by 2030.
The
study identified eight emerging, large-scale clean energy sectors that
were seen as playing a crucial role in the transition from fossil fuels
to a clean energy strategy over the next two decades. These were:
onshore wind, offshore wind, solar photovoltaic, solar thermal
electricity generation, municipal solar waste-to-energy, sugar-based
ethanol, cellulosic and next-generation biofuels, and geothermal power.
Max
von Bismarck and Anuradha Gurung from the World Economic Forum, and
Chris Greenwood and Michael Liebreich from New Energy Finance, said
"enormous investment in energy infrastructure is required to address
the twin threats of energy insecurity and climate change. In light of
the global financial crisis, it is crucial that every dollar is made to
'multi-task' to create a sustainable low-carbon economy."
At a
time when the global economy has been struggling, the report said
business had an opportunity to make healthy profits from the fight
against climate change. An index of the world's 90 leading clean energy
companies had a five-year compounded annualised return of almost 10%,
unmatched by the world's major stock indices.
Earlier
a group of climate change experts including Lord Nicholas Stern, author
of the UK government's report on the economics of climate change,
warned against complacency in the UN climate talks, due to conclude in
December in Copenhagen to replace the 1997 Kyoto protocol. They said
the economic and climate change agendas should be yoked together in
2009 to ensure that spending had long-term benefits for the environment
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2009/jan/29/davos-green-energy
