Copenhagen Climate Treaty & Climategate

Climate Change is the New Global Terror, Says Al Gore

November 20, 2010

Hindustan Times - Nobel Peace Prize winner and champion climate campaigner Al Gore outlined the doom the world is awaiting because of climate change and expressed disappointment at world leaders failing to clinch a treaty to fight the new global terror. Terming the logjam in climate negotiations as a “startling related stories paradox”, the man, whose documentary, The Inconvenient Truth, won an Oscar, said the year 2010 had seen worst of climate change.

“There was severe drought in Russia and extreme flooding in Pakistan. What more evidence is required for action,” he said at HT Leadership Summit.

His worst fear was that after failure of Copenhagen climate summit the talks where heading towards another “zombie” like the Doha process on World Trade Organisation negotiations. Gore’s solution for the problem was taking the issue back to the grassroots and creating a political storm to compel the leaders to react to climate change.

The former president blamed his own country United States -- world second biggest carbon emitter -- for failing to legislate a carbon law to curb emissions, resulting in failure of Copenhagen.

“There are six anti-climate lobbyists for every member of the Senate," he said, adding that such interest groups backed by billions of dollars by polluting companies in US were making an organised attempt to change the public opinion on climate change."

They believe that by deceiving people and creating false doubts climate science, they can delay the legislation," the Nobel Peace Prize winner for year 2007 with Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), said.

He like many leaders at the HT Summit had said that a solution to climate crises is not possible without involving business. For this, he recommended a price on carbon, which could be a carbon tax or a price for emissions higher than a particular level for each sector.

Al Gore had a lot of hope for India to take a lead in fighting climate change.

“India has a tremendous opportunity to lead the world in energy efficient solutions and in effecting a rapid shift to use of alternate energy like wind and solar,” Gore said.

The former US president described warm India-United States relation as a constant and not partisan.

“Three consecutive governments of two different parties have continued strong relations with India…I am happy at the success of (Barack) Obama’s India visit,” he said.