Smoke billows from the chimneys of Belchatow Power Station, Europe’s greatest coal-fired power plant, in this May 7, 2009, image.
Peter Andrews|Reuters
The head of the United Nations Development Programme informed CNBC that $423 billion of taxpayers’ cash is being invested in funding nonrenewable fuel source utilize each year, and is avoiding a shift towards cleaner energy.
Speaking around the launch of its brand-new project, “Don’t Choose Extinction,” UNDP Administrator Achim Steiner stated he was “very worried” that we remain in a “historical moment in time” with all the ways to take on environment modification, however not taking the choices required to make it take place.
The brand-new UNDP project versus nonrenewable fuel source aids sees a dinosaur, voiced by worldwide stars in different languages consisting of Jack Black, Eiza Gonzalez, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau and Ai ̈ssa Mai ̈ga, resolving the United Nations in New York, prompting the world not to choose that might lead them to follow dinosaurs into termination.
“There is an element of humor and adventure in there, but really it is to carry a very vital message to a very broad audience,” Steiner stated.
“It is meant to interest young people, old people, people who think that they have nothing to do with this and yet they are part of that fossil fuel economy that is taking us to the brink of a point of no return also in terms of climate change,” he included.
Steiner stated that investing $423 billion a year on nonrenewable fuel source aids is not an efficient usage of taxpayers’ cash. He included that they are typically warranted to make sure energy is less expensive for poorer individuals.
“But actually, when you look at the statistics the interesting reality is that it is something that actually benefits, really, the wealthier parts of society because they are disproportionately larger users of energy,” Steiner stated.
“So, if you’re interested in helping poorer people to have access to energy, to fuel, there are much more efficient ways of doing that and you don’t need to distort an entire economy in terms of the way we currently make fossil fuels artificially cheaper to use,” he stated.
A current U.N. report discovered that federal governments were on track to produce more than two times the levels of nonrenewable fuel sources in 2030 than would be required to keep increasing worldwide temperature levels to listed below 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.
Asked how this can be reversed, Steiner informed CNBC: “Well, many economists essentially agree that if you were to introduce a carbon price that reflects the true cost of using that fossil fuel in our economies today, you would actually very quickly create a market whereby producers but also consumers of fossil fuels, would actually move out of this sector.”
“And in fact, when we look at the global energy economy, we have already begun an energy revolution. In the last couple of years alone, there is more invested in new renewable energy infrastructure, and therefore invested in the construction and bringing it on stream, than in oil, gas, coal, and nuclear combined,” he included.
But Steiner stated he is “very worried” that we are still moving too gradually.
“The tragedy of this will be that my children, the next generation, will no longer have the option because it will have moved beyond that point of no return. Because once we are set on a pathway above 1.5, and then 2 degrees, it will take 100 years or 200 years to be able to reverse that,” he stated.
“And that is, in essence, the historical moment in time in which we find ourselves when, essentially having all the means to tackle climate change, but not finding it within ourselves to take the decisions that are necessary to make this possible,” he included.
