Monday, January 26 - Lord Stern at World Future Energy Summit in Abu Dhabi

Lord Stern, speaking at the World Future Energy Summit: "While the economic crisis is big, the planetary crisis is still bigger" (from GreenBusiness.com):

Delegates at World Future Energy Summit in Abu Dhabi were told that despite global downturn businesses must provide the push towards a low carbon future.

Leading politicians, academics, economists and business leaders attending the World Future Energy Summit in Abu Dhabi today called for firms around the world to accelerate efforts to address their carbon footprint, despite the short term financial pressures arising from the global economic downturn.

Delegates and speakers at the conference admitted that the financial crisis had undoubtedly hit efforts to curb carbon emissions in recent months, primarily as a result of the drying up of credit for costly renewable energy projects.

Also speaking at the conference, Sir Nicholas Stern, author of the UK government's Stern Review, said that despite the onset of the economic downturn the case for investing in low carbon technologies and business models remained compelling.

"The costs of inaction are immense and the costs of action are manageable," he said, reiterating his view that it will cost far less in the long-term to invest in tackling climate change now.

"Inaction will rewrite where we can live, leading to mass population movements, and plunging us into global conflict," he said. "While the economic crisis is big, the planetary crisis is still bigger."

Read the full article at Business Green:

http://www.businessgreen.com/business-green/news/

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