Interview: Climate change expert stresses need to tranform to low carbon economy

Climate change is a real threat and all countries must work hard to transform from a fossil fuel-based economy to a low carbon one when there is still time, a climate change expert told Xinhua in a recent exclusive interview.

Ken Berlin, president of the NGO Climate Reality, said the current economy, powered by fossil fuels, leads to the emission of a tremendous amount of greenhouse gas that causes climate changes, stressing that the world needs to transform to a greener economy to halt this process.

"What we are trying to do is to transform into a clean energy economy, an economy powered by clean sources like wind, solar electric cars."

Berlin participated the Rio Climate change conference on Tuesday, which discussed actions taken so far to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and presented alternatives to encourage governments to proceed with the transition as well as options to finance the process.

The transition will require large amounts of investment, estimated to total 1 trillion U.S. dollars worldwide per year by 2030, Berlin said.

The public will benefit from the change: By the time the transition is completed, the world will have cheaper, cleaner and more reliable energy, which will create jobs and make the countries that have finished the transition more competitive in the international market.

According to Berlin, several factors must be taken into consideration, especially the political one: While 70 percent of the public in the U.S. are in favor of cleaner energy, politicians are not listening as they are not voting for moves which encourage the transition.

The low prices of oil are also an obstacle, which may slow down the transition, but they will not prevent it, the expert said.

He said that alternatives like hybrids and electric cars are becoming more competitive despite low oil prices. However, given the amount of cars powered by fossil fuels available in the world, it will take years until they are mostly replaced, which is a long-term process.

The transition is necessary even though it is faced with obstacles, said Berlin. The impact will be staggering if the world does nothing to stop climate change and transform away from an economy powered by fossil fuels, and poorer nations will suffer more and earlier than rich ones.

"The economic impact will be staggering if nothing is done. Climate change really creates an existential threat to societies. We will see major impacts from major droughts and storms around the world, which will lead to a large number of immigrants." he said. Endi