Expert Urges Faster Global Transition to Clean Energy

Instant Max AI

(Efe, 23.Mar.2018) – The world must accelerate its transition from a carbon-based to a clean energy-based economy to put the brakes on a climate catastrophe that already causes 4.8 million deaths annually, the director of an organization that aims to facilitate understanding of global climate change said Friday at a conference in this northern Colombian city.

Klimaforum Latinoamerica Network Director Manuel Guzman Hennessey made his remarks during a panel discussion on the final day of a Colombian Natural Gas Association (Naturgas) conference in Cartagena.

He said that when the current fossil-fuels-based energy model was developed “no was thinking about creating an economy that would kill people.”

But the pollution and climate change stemming from greenhouse gas emissions have caused a catastrophic situation, according to the expert.

“The problem with this economy is that it causes 4.8 million deaths each year worldwide,” Guzman Hennessey said at Congreso Naturgas 2018, citing World Bank figures.

He added that the situation would grow more severe, with a much worse financial and human toll, if effective measures are not taken.

Guzman Hennessey said the world must devote 1.7 percent of global gross domestic product to address climate change-triggered catastrophes.

He added that at the present pace by 2030 climate change-induced disasters will cause agricultural damage, flooding and other phenomena that plunge some 100 million people into poverty.

“If we as a civilization are not able to stop this, before 2030 we’ll need to invest 3.2 percent of global GDP in dealing no longer with 4.8 million deaths but between 6.5 and 7 million deaths each year,” Guzman Hennessey said, referring to World Bank projections.

Congreso Naturgas 2018 concludes Friday after three days of debates on the use of natural gas as a transition fuel between oil and coal, the most contaminating energy sources, and clean energy sources such as solar and wind.

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