by Marie Kauna – EMTV Online, Port Moresby
With initiatives to analyse and communicate the economic benefits and costs of acting on climate change, The Global Commission on Economy and Climate has found that economies can still grow when emissions are being decreased.
A major international initiative chaired by former President of Mexico, Felipe Calderon, comprising of former finance ministers, leading research institutions from Britain and six other countries, has identified that economic growth can be spurred by climate-smart cities, while cutting down the carbon pollution.
According to Seth Schultz, a researcher for the C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group, who consulted on the report said, “There is now increasing evidence that emissions can decrease while economies continue to grow”.
According to leading economists, “putting cities on a course of smart growth – with expanded public transit, energy-saving buildings, and better waste management, could save as much as $22tn and avoid the equivalent in carbon pollutions of India’s entire annual output of greenhouse gases”.
Based on these findings, a call has been made on the world’s leading cities to commit themselves to these low carbon development strategies by 2020 to help cut down carbon pollution while maintaining economic growth.
With aims to discuss a possible global agreement on climate change, a conference will be held in Paris from November 30 to December 11. The conference will bring together 190 nations and their governments to discuss a new global agreement on climate change.
