Source: RTE
URL: http://www.mrfcj.org/news/carbon-emissions-highest-human-history.html
Date: 14/04/2014
Event: Mary Robinson: We only have "at most, two decades to save the world"
Attribution: Morning Ireland, RTE Radio 1
People:
Gavin Jennings: Well, that cancelled deal on wind energy comes, as Rachael said, as a long-awaited UN report on how to curb climate change says the world must rapidly move away from carbon-intensive fuels. There must be a massive shift, it says, to renewable energy. The report is the work of the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which was set up to provide a clear scientific view on climate change and its impacts, and warns that despite promises of change worldwide, more greenhouse gases are being produced than at any other time, and temperatures are set to rise by up to 5 degrees Celsius. Former President Mary Robinson says the report is a wake-up call, and she's on the phone, now. Mary Robinson, good morning.
Mary Robinson: Good morning.
Gavin Jennings: A "wake-up call", you say, but if this report is to be believed, the world has hit the snooze button - very little, or at least not enough, is changing.
Mary Robinson: Definitely not enough. We cannot have business as usual, that's the message - we have to act, and the action has to be transformative. And we have to move very rapidly to renewables. This is the third report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, this year - the first one told us that climate change is happening, and it's happening fast. I hope we will never have deniers - you don't need to have balance any more on programmes or on the media - there is no question that climate change is happening.
Then recently we had the second report, on the impacts. The impacts on food security, on health, et cetera - I've seen this in developing countries, which is why my foundation has the approach of climate justice, because those that have done least to cause the problem are among the most vulnerable - they're hurting already, and there's an injustice in that. But I think there's a lot of positive in this report - it's about what we can do and must do, and that in fact it's very doable. Renewables are getting cheaper and cheaper, and we have to move into them, and we are lucky, as the minister said, that we have wind potential in Ireland, we've got to address that. We've got to have a real conversation about it.
And we've got to understand that we need more energy efficiency, we need tougher building codes, we need efficiency standards for cars and trucks, we need to take steps so that everybody has to think in terms of: we only have, you know, at most, two decades to save the world. Let's get into that mindset. And we start with, I hope, good Sustainable Development Goals, next year, and a robust and fair climate agreement by the end of 2015.
Gavin Jennings: Here at home, if we're serious about getting on board with tackling climate change, it's going to mean more wind turbines, more fracking, the possibility of nuclear power and, as people already know, paying for water. And there's opposition to all of those.
Mary Robinson: Yeah, there is one reference to fracking, in the report, but actually, you know, if you think about it, the carbon footprint of shale gas is significantly higher than for renewables, and it's also significantly more costly to produce than renewables, so why would we go in a direction, when we can go in a renewable direction? Overall, shale gas would displace the investment in renewables, which is where we ultimately must go, according to this report - that's the solution.
And so I think, you know, let's be - let's be very smart in Ireland - smart, sustainable agriculture, smart energy. Let's have schools and universities focus on, you know, how we are really ahead of the game - there's the "Green Ireland" on this. And also, that we retain that climate justice approach, because we have a very good record in developing country relationships, and developing countries need the technology so that they can go to a clean energy approach. Think about the millions who have no access to clean energy, at the moment - you know, over a billion have no electricity and over two billion still cook on open fires and inhale smoke and it causes huge numbers of deaths.
So the opportunities are very real, in this report, as well as the wake-up call - we cannot continue as we are going, we have to think again about every way in which we can go to renewables, and fast.
Gavin Jennings: This report - it's half past 8, I'll get to the news headlines in a moment - the report suggests that population and economic growth are the driving factors behind more greenhouse gases, and says that if the policies needed to achieve the target of reducing greenhouse gases were implemented, it would mean that global economic growth would be reduced by around 0.6% every year, into the future. It's very hard to sell policies like that, worldwide.
Mary Robinson: But it's actually a tiny, um, overall reduction, given you also have the co-benefits of clean energy, of better air - think of China, at the moment, there's a developing country that's using too much coal, and it knows it, it wants to cut coal, but it also has energy demands. And so, I mean, cities in China becoming unliveable, water, you know, rivers are becoming over-polluted. Is that the future we want? Or do we want the energy to be clean, renewable energy, so that we're living in harmony with nature, in a way. I mean, we have to get back to understanding that we're bad stewards, at the moment, of Mother Earth herself. And she's protesting.
And this is so serious it should be on the top of the agenda of political figures but also the business community - the private sector is going to have to produce the technologies that take us forward into cheaper and cheaper and more user-friendly, if you like, renewables. And they need the policy signals, for that. So, you know, Europe is about to decide on a 40% reduction by 2030 - it was put off in March because of the Ukraine problem and problems of energy security - we have to get back to the European Union at least getting that leadership - 40% is probably not enough, but it's leadership - and we can then take it forward, when we've digested the implications of these three reports, and particularly this one about climate action.
Gavin Jennings: Mary Robinson, former President, thank you very much for speaking to us, this morning.