Prof Sachs reminded that time was running out, and the emissions were still accelerating. The problem was something to be addressed here and now, not over the next 20 years. Also, he pointed out that the race to develop green technology would not necessarily take care of the problem of emissions, as was being presumed. Citing the example of China, he said that though China was racing ahead in the area of greentech, it was still building huge coal-fired plants to fuel its burgeoning economy.
Prof Sachs said that we are neither on a sustainable, nor a realistic trajectory of development. He called for urgently adopting a four-pronged approach - need for adopting a concrete and serious formula; need to begin the real ‘life and death’ challenge of adaptation to climate change; need to bring technology to the forefront; and the need to proceed further without waiting for the US anymore.
He stated that we do not have the existing technology that could take us on the path of sustainable development, and we need to upscale the production of wind and solar technologies. In short, there was a need to bring greentech out from the research and pre-commercial stage to the commercial stage, for which there was need for RDDD (research, development, demonstration, diffusion).
The session was chaired by Mr Nitin Desai, Former Under Secretary
of the United Nations and Distinguished Fellow at TERI.
Highlights
- Financing was urgently needed for adaptation, scaling up the resilience of poor countries, transforming core technologies, reducing the cost of green technology.
