28 June 2010 | Luca Del Buono
Climate Change, Energy, Legislation, Africa, Antarctica, Asia, Australia, Europe, North America, South America

 

Former President Mikhail Gorbachev, US Energy Secretary Steven Chu and European Commissioner Janez Potočnik were all attendees of the World Forum on Enterprise and the Environment that was held over the last three days. The forum's aim was to call on governments to form strategies of their own to combat climate change in the wake of the disappointing summit at Copenhagen last year.

President Gorbachev, in the opening session, drew attention to the pressing matter of fossil fuels. He asserted the need for nations to move away from a fossil fuel powered economy and for low carbon energy to become a working reality. He stated that:

"The World Forum is a leading global event demonstrating the feasibility of tackling climate change. It is of paramount importance that we now bring all countries on board and develop structures which can converge towards a new global climate agreement."
Dr Chu agreed with this assertion. He expressed his belief at the forum that oil prices will rise as demand increases and that, for this reason, it is imperative that the US begins to move towards a low carbon economy as soon as possible.
The event, held over three days, attempted to summarise a method for reaching a sustainable economy by 5050 and how to keep the 2020 targets on track. The World Forum was organised by the Smith School of Enterprise and the Environment and Sir David King, its Founding Director, stressed that:
"Copenhagen was a wakeup call and clearly showed we need to rethink how we move to a defossilised economy. We need to develop a series of matching frameworks that work for regions and for countries, and set out a clear pathway to mitigate against climate change. We know that urgent action is required and that is why we have convened a group of leaders at the World Forum to help us identify the right route."

The forum focused on the topic 'Low Carbon Mobility: Land; Sea and Air' and covered many subjects such as depleting conventional oil reserves; increasing demand with the growth of the emerging economies; and the increasing impact on the environment. It is hoped that the forum will help provoke governments to accelerate their progress on the path to a low carbon future for their economies.

Author: Rachael Bristow | Climate Action

Image: Veni markovski | Flickr

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