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Calderon allays fears over carbon emission controls

Dubai - "Five years ago, the Earth supported one billion cars."

Oil producing nations will not be negatively impacted by efforts to reduce carbon emission, according to Mexico's former president Felipe Calderon.
Calderon, who is currently the Chair of the Global Commission on the Economy and Climate, has called for tighter controls on carbon emissions at the final day of World Government Summit.
Also he suggested building small, compact cities, reducing deforestation, recovering degraded soil and encouraging innovation to meet the challenges of global warming."Scientific data indicates there is a clear association between the rise of carbon emissions and the advent of global warming," he said.
"We can see that the last three decades have been the hottest with 2014 and 2015 recording the warmest temperatures in history."The evidence is clear, so why are governments and economies not doing more to reduce climate change?"Additionally, Calderon said that cities of the future need to implement better large-scale public transportation systems to reduce dependence on automobiles.
"Five years ago, the Earth supported one billion cars. If we follow these trends, by the middle of the century, we will have three billion cars, an amount we simply cannot sustain," he said.
"Cities with a focus on individual cars will provoke wide spread carbon emissions and reduce our productivity, hurting economies rather than helping them."A key policy, Calderon noted, is the elimination of subsidies on fossil fuels and establishment of predictable prices on carbon.He recommended that economies accelerate low carbon investment and innovation and increase research and development budgets across all sectors, and eradicate the use of coal for power generation."If we allocate the right amount of money for the right amount of sources we can enact change," he said.
"If oil producing regions fund new technologies, diversify energy sources, support power generation in developing countries, recover soil and reduce deforestation and lead the transition to a greener economy, they will increase economic productivity and become world leaders," he added.
reporters@khaleejtimes.com