Curbing climate change will cost $700b a year
Updated: 2013-01-22 14:56
(Agencies)
|
||||||||
COMBINED EFFORT
Governments and the private sector have often failed to work in tandem to mobilise funds to combat climate change.
"There is still private sector money going to climate destruction," said Jake Schmidt, international climate policy director at the National Resources Defense Council in Washington. "To deal with climate change, everyone has to be moving in the right direction."
"And the key to all of this is how do you unlock big sources of private finance... Sovereign wealth funds, pension funds have a lot of capital. Mobilizing them would be the holy grail."
The WEF-commissioned report pointed to some hopeful signs -- global investment in renewable energy in 2011 rose to a new record $257 billion, up 17 percent from 2010.
But UN climate negotiations in Qatar in December ended with little progress on a global framework for emissions cuts.
Instead, governments agreed to devise a new United Nations pact to limit climate change that would enter into force from 2020.
A study published in the science journal Nature this month said it would be far cheaper to act now to keep global warming within an agreed U.N. limit of 2 degrees Celsius than to wait until 2020.
- Li Na on Time cover, makes influential 100 list
- FBI releases photos of 2 Boston bombings suspects
- World's wackiest hairstyles
- Sandstorms strike Northwest China
- Never-seen photos of Madonna on display
- H7N9 outbreak linked to waterfowl migration
- Dozens feared dead in Texas plant blast
- Venezuelan court rules out manual votes counting
Most Viewed
Editor's Picks
American abroad |
Industry savior: Big boys' toys |
New commissioner
|
Liaoning: China's oceangoing giant |
TCM - Keeping healthy in Chinese way |
Poultry industry under pressure |
Today's Top News
Boston bombing suspect reported cornered on boat
7.0-magnitude quake hits Sichuan
Cross-talk artist helps to spread the word
'Green' awareness levels drop in Beijing
Palace Museum spruces up
First couple on Time's list of most influential
H7N9 flu transmission studied
Trading channels 'need to broaden'
US Weekly
Beyond Yao
|
Money power |