World Economic Forum

DAVOS, Switzerland, January 29, 2009 (ENS) - "Climate change threatens all our goals for development and social progress," UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told the world's business and government leaders today at the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos. "On the other hand, it also presents us with a gilt-edged opportunity."

Ban's comments came as the World Economic Forum released a report warning that unless at least US$515 billion a year is invested in clean energy between now and 2030, carbon emissions will reach a level considered unsustainable by scientists, causing global temperatures to rise by two degrees Celsius.

"Green Investing: Towards a Clean Energy Infrastructure" identifies eight emerging, large-scale clean energy sectors critical to the clean energy infrastructure of the future - onshore wind, offshore wind, solar photovoltaic, solar thermal electricity generation, municipal solar waste-to-energy, sugar-based ethanol, cellulosic and next generation biofuels, and geothermal power.

Ban urged the high-powered audience to use the current economic crisis to launch a global Green New Deal that creates jobs and fights climate change by investing in renewable energy and technological development.

"By tackling climate change head-on we can solve many of our current troubles, including the threat of global recession," said Secretary-General Ban. "We stand at a crossroads. It is important that we realize we have a choice. We can choose short-sighted unilateralism and business as usual. Or we can grasp global cooperation and partnership on a scale never before seen."

At another session in Davos, Ban pushed for a climate change communication initiative that will explain, educate and ask for global engagement, leading to success at the UN climate change conference slated to be held in December in Copenhagen, where negotiations on a successor pact to the Kyoto Protocol are slated to conclude.

Former U.S. President Bill Clinton today called for urgent U.S. leadership to stem the current financial crisis and restore the global economy and predicted an "explosion of jobs" from government stimulus-fueled investments in alternative energy technologies.

Clinton stressed the interdependence in the world economy, reminding governments that when they finance the U.S. recovery by buying U.S. Treasury bonds and securities they are investing in their own export economies.

"This financial crisis proves, as nothing else should - or could, the fundamental fact that global interdependence is more important than anything else in the world today," Clinton said. "We cannot escape each other. Divorce is not an option."

[edit] World Economic Forum: Green Investing

Recently the World Economic Forum in Davos released a new study on Green Investing: Towards a Clean Energy Infrastructure. In the study it states that "two billion people worldwide have no access to modern fuels and 1.6 billion have no access to electricity. In addition, hundreds of millions more live in areas with unreliable grids and experience regular outages disrupting light, water pumps and other essential functions". GreenMicrofinance was listed in the study as one of eight global organizations "working on innovative ways of using microfinance to provide clean energy in developing countries"