From: Tim Flannery - Climate Council [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: Thursday, 26 November 2015 6:51 PM
To: John Lloyd
Subject: Why I have hope for Paris
Dear John,
In 2009, 190 countries met in Copenhagen to discuss a global agreement on climate change. And while the conference was widely dismissed as a failure, it actually triggered a significant shift in global energy use and production away from fossil fuels - giving rise to the renewables revolution.
And now six years later, as I head off to Paris for the climate talks, I’m hopeful. Because conferences like these don’t make change - they mark it. These talks will give yet another boost to the momentum we’re already seeing behind this renewable energy revolution. The commitments made by countries as part of the Paris talks will alone almost quadruple renewables capacity by 2030! And it’s this ‘revolution’ that we explore in our latest report launched this week, A Whole New World: Tracking the renewables boom from Copenhagen to Paris.
In it we talk about the 4,700,000 new jobs that have been created worldwide in renewable energy since the previous UN talks in Copenhagen. And how at the same time, the price of solar PV modules has dived 75%, wind power has fallen a dramatic 30% and the number of countries with renewable energy targets has almost doubled.
This is an important and exciting report; one that demonstrates just how much momentum is behind the transition to renewable energy. Please share it with your networks so we can propel that momentum even further!
The Climate Council’s CEO, Amanda McKenzie, fellow Climate Councillor, Prof. Lesley Hughes and I will be in Paris for the climate talks. We’ll be speaking to media both in Australia and internationally about what’s really going on at the conference, keeping the public informed of the facts about what the world is doing - and how Australia tracking.
We’ll also be sharing our insights and reflections on the innovation, progress and scale of solutions that are being implemented throughout the world. Make sure you check our website and social media channels regularly for our latest updates. And please continue to keep sharing our work with your family, friends and colleagues - it truly does make an impact.
We’ll update you from Paris - but until then I’m signing off with hope, and leaving you with a short video the team at the Council have put together to explain the Paris climate talks in under two minutes. Keep an eye out for Lesley and my appearance about halfway through!