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Action to save the climate
will strengthen our economies,
create jobs and increase our quality of life.
"If we don't deal with [climate change],
you will have island nations flooded; you will have the agricultural
balance of most countries completely changed; you will have
a dramatic increase in the number of severe, unmanageable weather
events. [...] And the good news is that we can now deal with
this problem -- and strengthen our economic growth, not weaken
it." Bill Clinton, addressing as US-President the Russian
Duma, June 2000
Governments are reluctant to fight climate change
because they fear, as a result of the need to cut down greenhouse
gas emissions, our economies may suffer and unemployment rise.
This is short-sighted. The projected economic, social and environmental
costs of rising sea levels, floods, storms or heat waves will
disrupt our economies far more than any action to fight it.
Governments also fail to factor in the gains that
new cleaner industries will bring to our economies. For example,
while ecological taxes increase energy costs, they also generate
additional income that governments can use to reduce labour
costs, increasing jobs. There is great employment and innovation
potential in the transition to sustainable energy systems. In
Germany, for example, 130,000 people work in the renewable energy
sector, compared to only 40,000 in the coal sector that gets
six times more subsidies. Scientists estimate that increasing
the share of renewables to 12% of total energy production by
2010 could result in up to 720,000 new jobs in Europe.
In the developing countries, investing in renewable
energy creates essential and sustainable development opportunities
for rural and urban poor, generating jobs and empowering local
communities. In addition, energy systems based on renewable
sources are much more rooted on regional and local levels. Thus,
they provide more secure forms of energy and reduce the need
for aggressive foreign policy to secure fossil fuel resources.
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