Hopes for a green future kick off Conference 2008
Part of:
Climate change
,
CO2 capture and storage
Norwegian Environmental Minister Erik Solheim, Frederic Hauge, Gro Harlem Brundtland and Ricardo Lagos.
Nils Bøhmer/Bellona
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The agreement of a lifetime
“The agreement that is expected to be reached in Copenhagen might be the most important agreement of our time,” said Bellona Foundation President Frederic Hauge.
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| Bellona President Fredric Hauge at the CC8 opening. |
| Hafslund |
Hauge was greeted by an exuberant audience during his opening speech at the international Climate Conference 2008 when he showed a bottle with CO2 consuming algae.
“I hope that in the future we will be able to replace ‘black gold’ with the ‘green gold,’” he told the delighted crowd.
Absorbing atmospheric CO2 by growing modern biomass — such as algae, among others — on non-agricultural land, and using it in power plants fitted with Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) technology to achieve net negative CO2 emissions is one of the measures proposed by Bellona in its report on how to combat global warming.
The report, titled The Bellona Scenario: How to combat global warming," was presented in Sarpsborg today.
Exciting ideas
Algae production is an exciting idea, Lord Nicholas Stern, author of the vaunted Stern Report, told Bellona Web. Stern was among the key-note speakers at the CC8 conference.
Former chief economist with the World Bank, Stern’s report starkly demonstrated that the cost of not doing anything to address climate change will be much higher than the prospective spending to stop the global warming, and will leave the world as economically devastated as it was after World War II.
“We need more such ideas (as growing algae as a CO2 cleansing source) and they should receive support, said Stern.
Original estimates conservative
According to his own calculations, the speed by which the world’s temperature is rising as presented in his original report is by now only a conservative estimate.
One reason for this, said Stern, is that the ocean is not absorbing CO2 at the rates it was projected to.
“If you do not want to do anything, you use three arguments,” said Stern. “You can deny the climate change, you can deny that the climate change is human made, and you can say that you do not care about the future, which is ethically crazy.”
Countries must take responsibility
Stern is certain that world's release of CO2 should be cut by 50 percent by 2050. Rich countries should cut by 80 percent by 2050.
He said that it is important to stop deforestation and boost the development of new technologies. And while the world is waiting for international agreements over which particular country should take responsibility, the clock is ticking.
Brundtland, Persson and Lagos
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| ‘I am a technology optimist’ – former Norwegian Prime Minister Gro Harlem Brundtland. |
| Hafslund |
Club de Madrid members and former prime ministers Gro Harlem Brundtland of Norway and Göran Persson of Sweden, as well as former Chilean president Ricardo Lagos, were among other key-note speakers opening the CC8.
Currently UN's special envoy on climate questions, Brundtland said the world faces a big challenge that will influence all sides of humanity. She said this will also mean new opportunities for business.
“I am a technology optimist,” said Brundtland.
Persson also focused on technology.
“Yesterday's technology is a threat,” Persson stressed.
In his speech he told how Sweden replaced oil and coal with biomass with help of taxes and regulations and described the shift as a win-win situation.
Chile’s Lagos, who is the UN's special climate envoy and president and the co-organiser of the Club de Madrid, thanked the more than 100 participants and stated there is a great need for discussion on the climate issues.
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