Off the wire
• Urgent: Oil prices rise on drop of supply forecast  • Rajoy to make changes to Spanish gov't in wake of election setback  • South Sudan insists on expelling UN official  • Premature elections agreed on in Macedonia as crisis exit strategy  • Spanish stock market rises 0.3 pct, closes at 11,271 points  • 2nd LD Writethru: Four teenagers seriously injured in British park rollercoaster accident, rescue underway  • EU slams expulsion of UN relief official from S. Sudan  • Urgent: Gold up on weak dollar, Greece concern  • Maersk Line orders 11 ultra-large container ships for 1.8 bln USD  • Roundup: Iran reiterates steadfast support to Syria  
You are here: 　 Home

UK academics push for global project to fund clean energy

Xinhua, June 3, 2015 Adjust font size:

With the aim of tackling climate change, a group of UK scientists and economists Tuesday revealed a global research program that plans to boost green energy development and, at the same time, lower its cost.

The Global Apollo Program, initiated by a group of British scientists, economists and businessmen, calls for a yearly research fund of 15 billion pounds (23 billion U.S. dollars) to develop renewable energy, its storage and smart grids, according to the program report released on Tuesday.

With the new technology, clean electricity can be less costly than fossil-fueled power stations within 10 years, the report said.

For the time being, nations worldwide are not investing enough of public funds in renewable energy. As it stands, research and development (R&D) funding in this field amounts to less than two percent of the total publicly funded R&D projects, according to the report.

To change this, the program has set the goal of doubling global research spending in this area from the current two percent of the world's R&D budget. Nations joining the program would commit to spending 0.02 percent their respective gross domestic product on the R&D project and would in return gain a place on a global commission. The commission will function as a body to coordinate and direct the research.

The proposed program has been discussed by G7 energy ministers and is on the agenda for the G7 heads of state meeting in Germany in June.

One of the initiators and UK's climate change envoy, David King, said he hoped the program could be launched in November ahead of the UN climate change summit in Paris in December. Endit