Speaking at a major climate science conference
in Paris IEA chief economist Fatih Birol said that the world’s fossil fuel
companies risk wasting billions of dollars of investment by not taking global
action to fight climate change seriously.
The think-tank Carbon Tracker has
estimated that over $1tn
(£0.6tn) of oil investments and $280bn
of gas investments would be left uneconomic if the world’s governments
succeed in their pledge to limit global warming to 2C. Professor Ottmar
Edenhofer from Germany warned of a “global
coal renaissance”, particularly in fast-growing poor nations. He said six
of the 10 fastest growing carbon emitters are from sub-saharan Africa, led by
Congo, Benin and Angola. He said that, even if technology to capture and store
carbon on a large scale is developed, two-thirds of all coal resources and a
third of all oil and gas would have to be kept in the ground to limit climate
change to 2C. Read
more at http://www.theguardian.com/
