Former US vice president Al Gore delivered an upbeat assessment of the global response to climate change yesterday, saying he believes a “political tipping point” has been reached which will enable leaders to avert environmental catastrophe.
In an interview, the Nobel peace prize winner said US President Barack Obama’s arrival in the White House, combined with a growing realization of the problem among business leaders, means there is now enough political momentum to tackle the world’s greatest environmental threat.
He believes a global climate deal will be agreed at the UN-brokered climate talks scheduled in Copenhagen for December.
“There is a very impressive consensus now emerging around the world that the solutions to the economic crisis are also the solutions to the climate crisis,” he said. “I actually think we will get an agreement at Copenhagen.”
While admitting there is a big challenge ahead, he said he was seeing signs of hope. “[Obama’s election] is one of the main factors,” he said. “But we also have a big ally in reality the planet is under assault. This collision with human civilization ... is increasingly dire.”
Gore held private talks with Obama in December in which they reportedly discussed the “green” components of the US$787 billion US stimulus package signed into law on Feb. 17.
Gore said he has also detected a shift in the view of many business leaders.
“They’re seeing the writing on every wall they look at. They’re seeing the complete disappearance of the polar ice caps right before their eyes in just a few years,” he said. “They’re seeing the new US administration. They’re seeing [British Prime Minister] Gordon Brown and [opposition leader] David Cameron both advocating dramatic changes here in the UK.”
Gore warns business leaders who did not yet “get it” that they should look to the collapse of the sub-prime mortgage market as a warning.
“We now have several trillion dollars worth of sub-prime carbon assets whose value is based on the assumption that [carbon dioxide] is free and there is nothing wrong with 70 million tonnes of it entering into the atmosphere every 24 hours,” he said.
“That assumption is also in the process of collapsing and the remedy for it will include ... a change in business practices,” he said.
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