Energy leaders from countries that pump
out 75% of the world’s climate-changing emissions talked on June 2 on
the nitty-gritty of putting last year’s Paris climate accord into
action, including funding the needed global technology overhaul, AP
reported.
The annual gathering of energy leaders
representing 23 countries and the European Commission was one of their
first since December, when heads of 195 countries committed to a deal
meant to limit fossil-fuel pollution that is making global weather
hotter and more extreme. With the world already about 1 degree Celsius
warmer than pre-industrial times, nations have committed to limiting
warming to another degree Celsius from now, half that if possible.
Convened up the road from Silicon Valley,
the session was part cheering session for the clean-energy investment
and successes so far, part dire warning for the work yet to be done.
‘The urgency of this threat keeps
growing,” US President Barack Obama said in a videotaped message for the
energy officials of China, India and other countries in the
Clean-Energy Ministerial, a global energy-leaders forum meant to push
reductions in carbon emissions. “The Paris agreement has to go into
force as soon as possible.”
The United States and China both have signed but not yet ratified the climate accord.
US Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz and
others pointed to the potential miracles of the mundane — like more
energy-efficient air conditioners for the 8.5 billion sweaty, crowded
residents that Earth will hold in 2030. That change alone would save the
annual outputs of thousands of power plants, energy experts said.
Summit participants lauded a determined
national push for LED lights across India, and applauded a number of
other countries launching their own LED campaigns.
“It’s the government-private sector partnership that will actually get the work done on the Paris accord,” Moniz said.
Members pointed to successes so far. That
includes the global economy managing about 3% growth last year without
seeing the usual accompanying jump in carbon emissions. And countries in
the clean-energy ministerial alone invested more than $300 billion in
clean-energy investment in the same year.
With 2016 on pace to follow 2015 as the
warmest years on record, however, “don’t think you’ve got a handle on
it. Because you don’t,” California Gov. Jerry Brown warned the
international political and business leaders and technology mavens.
As much as the world needs
cleaner-burning gear, Brown said, it also needs a grim coming-to-terms
with what he said should be a World War II-style mobilization to cut
carbon pollution. “The political mind is not there yet,” the California
governor, an international figure in the climate-change fight, said.
“The hour is late.”
https://www.neweurope.eu/article/global-energy-leaders-examine-details-climate-accord/