Climate action – who is
stopping us?
The world has changed since our leaders discussed climate change in 2009. It has become even more evident; ravaging crops in Africa, melting ice in the Arctic, drowning the Philippines and drying-up California. The poor are paying the highest price. But ever since super storm Sandy hit New York, even the rich in industrialized countries know that they can't hide from devastating climate change in their gated communities.
Climate change is not on its way. It's already here.
Yet, cost-effective, sensible solutions have also made quantum leaps since 2009. Clean, renewable energy is getting bigger, better and cheaper every day. It can provide the answers our exhausted planet is looking for. Renewables are the most economical solution for new power capacity in an ever-increasing number of countries. 100% of power capacity added in the United States last month was renewable and countries like Denmark and Germany are producing new 'clean electricity' records almost every month. In China, real change is under way, too. Not only is China installing as much solar this year as the US has ever done, but their apocalyptic coal boom which drove up global carbon pollution since 2000 is also coming to an end. Things are rapidly changing and the current economic paradigm is no longer impenetrable – the light of reason is starting to shine through its cracks.
If rationality and economics were humanity's guide to living on this planet, climate action would no longer need summits. The more successful clean energy solutions get, the more they are cutting into the profit margins of those few powerful companies whose business models depends on continued fossil fuel dependency.
That's why we agree with UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon when he says "instead of asking if we can afford to act, we should be asking what is stopping us, who is stopping us, and why?" We would add to this another question: for how long? the amount of protected areas?
Today, it is interests of the fossil fuel industries – not technology nor economics – which are the only obstacle to securing a safe future for us and our children on this planet. And they know it, too. When we talk to people at major energy firms these days, they admit in private that they understand the need to transition towards clean energy. But the coal investments that companies like Duke Energy in the US, and Eskom in South Africa have made are holding them back. Worse, because they fear that their massive investments could become stranded (i.e. wasted) assets they are actively lobbying politicians to slow down the clean, people-powered energy revolution that is under way.
by Kumi Naidoo,
Executive Director of
Greenpeace International
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