THE CARBON WAR

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The Winning of The Carbon War
healthcare.” Medical organisations must divest, he says. “If we don’t become
campaigners on this, we are failing in our duty of care as medics.”
The summit ends with half a dozen officials on stage representing health
associations from around the world. They announce an unprecedented alliance
of doctors, nurses, and other health professionals from every part of the
health sector, all appealing for a strong agreement at the Paris climate summit.
They announce the signatories of declarations representing over 1,700 health
organizations, 8,200 hospitals and health facilities, and 13 million health professionals.
The global medical consensus on climate change is now at a level
never seen before, they say.
I had not realised that the international consensus and strength of feeling
in the health sector was as strong as this.
We are all supposed to listen to our doctors, aren’t we?
Day Seven, Sunday 6 th December: Another venue within a city draped in climate
posters, this time in a Palais. The International Renewable Energy Agency and
other umbrella bodies convene a day with the European Commission and the
government of Abu Dhabi entitled RE-Energising the Future. All too slowly
the renewables industries are getting their act together on the climate scene.
As things stand, any success at this summit will have had very little to do with
the lobbying of the industries that have so much to gain.
National and regional solar associations from around the world do something
today that they should have done years ago. Seventeen of them launch
a united front, the Global Solar Council, a coalition that includes industry
bodies from both established and emerging markets, including China and
India. This belated initiative will find itself pushing on doors already ajar due
to the earlier efforts of others.
“The levelized cost of solar electricity is 80% lower than it was during
COP15 in Copenhagen in 2009”, the publicity boasts. Solar, because of its
plunging cost and versatility, is “the top candidate” to help countries tighten
their national emissions commitments.
There is now many a delegate out at Le Bourget who wouldn’t disagree
with that.
At the event, I chat with Thierry Lepercq, CEO of Solairedirect, a French
company somewhat similar to Solarcentury that has recently been acquired by
GDF Suez / Engie as part of their business-model U-turn away from centralised
power in Europe. I find him brimming with excitement about the capital that