Raise the price of fossil fuels and phase out coal if humanity wants to halt climate change, a leading scientist on global warming said yesterday.
'As long as fossil fuel remains the cheapest energy, we'll keep burning it,' said James Hansen, the director of Nasa's Goddard Institute for Space Studies, who is in Hong Kong to attend the four-day Climate Dialogue Conference starting today.
'If you want to discourage fossil fuels and encourage clean energy, you are going to need to put a price on carbon emissions.'
The conference is jointly organised by Civic Exchange, an independent local think tank, C40 Climate Leadership Group, a green alliance of 40 world cities, and Hong Kong-based Environmental Campaign Committee. Among the 600 participants are policymakers and mayors, leading scientists and executives from business organisations. They will share their experiences and discuss possible policies.
Hansen, who has been called the 'godfather of global warming science', brought the climate change debate to a wider audience when he testified before the US Congress in the 1980s. He accuses the fossil fuel industry of being sceptical of global warming and dismissing its urgency. Hansen, who will speak today at the conference, reiterated his call to end the planet's 'fossil fuel addiction'.
China could become a world leader in green energy, he believes. 'We should restore the world's energy balance. It is possible but not easy,' he said.