Claudia Kemfert, Head of the Department of Energy, Transportation, Environment at the German Institute for Economic Research (DIW) in Berlin
How much are we willing to pay to keep doing nothing? How much is it worth to us to go on blowing our emissions into the air without thinking about it? One thing is clear: if we continue to do business without protecting the climate, we will pay dearly in the end. People who argue that we can’t afford to protect the climate overlook what it would cost us not to do so. Right now, not in 50 years. Climate protection is a lot cheaper.
Sunita Narain, Director of the Centre for Science and Environment in New Delhi since 1982
Climate protection is a matter of international cooperation. More than anything else, climate change teaches us that the world is one whole. Just as the rich pumped enormous amounts of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere yesterday, the emerging countries are doing so today. The fight against climate change also shows that the only way to set up effective controls is basing it on fairness and equality: only in this way will this, the world’s biggest joint venture, be possible.
Stavros Dimas, European Commissioner for the Environment in Brussels since 2004
A large proportion of the carbon-dioxide emissions in our countries has hitherto been caused by the transport sector. There will therefore be a series of measures to reduce vehicle emissions. We will also use more renewable energies in the future. Another aim must be to significantly reduce energy wastage in our homes in future. Germany plays an important, leading role in the fight against climate change and sets the pace in renewable energies and green technology.
Jeremy Rifkin, President of the Foundation on Economic Trends in Washington, D.C.
Our dependence on fossil energies is increasingly becoming an impediment for the global economy. The key question that every nation must face is therefore: where will the country stand in 25 years? Will it still be in the grip of the outdated industries and energy suppliers of the second industrial revolution? Or will it place its trust in the industry and energy of the third industrial revolution, which will lead the world away from the old coal- and uranium-based energy suppliers into an emission-free, sustainable future.
Klaus Töpfer, founding director of the Institute for Advanced Climate, Earth System and Sustainability Studies in Potsdam, Executive Director of the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) from 1998 to 2006
It’s time we finally extended the debate to the demand side: What do we need energy for? And how we do waste it? The issue of energy efficiency must clearly be high on the agenda. We must access the “low-hanging fruits”, the ones we can harvest without a lot of effort. Because the time pressure in the fight against climate change is enormous. Up to now it has taken far too long to translate scientific knowledge into political action.
