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Rio climate conference discusses transition to low-carbon economy

Xinhua, October 28, 2015 Adjust font size:

Experts on environmental protection and climate change gathered here Tuesday at the Rio Climate Challenge, a conference to discuss the global transition to a low-carbon economy.

Representatives from foreign and local universities, NGOs and think tanks as well as government representatives from Brazil and France discussed the challenges of transforming the current fossil-fuel based economy into a low-carbon and greener one.

Brazil and France presented their actions taken so far to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and encourage low-carbon activities.

Brazil has made some progress in reducing carbon emissions over the past few years by sharply cutting back deforestation.

However, experts suggest that the country needs to do more such as investing in clean energy.

The conference was organized by Brazilian think tank Centro Brasil no Clima (CBC), whose executive director, Alfredo Sirkis, is a former congressman and a longtime leading environmental advocate in the country.

Sirkis' CBC, along with France Strategie, an office of the French government, aim to present a new strategy at the UN's COP-21 Climate Summit to be held this December in Paris: establish carbon reduction emissions as a convertible financial value to develop mechanisms to finance a smoother transition to a low-carbon economy. Positive pricing of carbon emission reduction in the form of financial bonds is among the measures proposed.

Sirkis said conferences like Rio Climate Challenge help consolidate the proposal, adding that there was also progress at the recent Climate Change Conference in Bonn, Germany.

He said the parties had acknowledged the social and economic value of mitigation actions.

"This opens a giant field for us to work in the next years. Now we have to, little by little, technically invent and improve and politically articulate the mechanism which will follow this recognition," Sirkis said.

"In this sense, I think the most important country with which to articulate is China." Endi