Monday, November 13, 2017

Seeing through the Greed

“Promoting coal at a climate summit is like promoting tobacco at a cancer summit” - Michael Bloomberg, the former New York mayor and a UN special envoy for cities and climate change.

Benson Kibiti, from the Kenya Climate Working Group, said: “More coal will entrench poverty.” Kibiti said: “More coal is not going to end the problem of people living without electricity. The vast majority – 84% – of electricity-poor households globally are in rural areas, so off-grid solutions powered by renewables like solar, wind and small hydro are going to be the cheapest and quickest.”

“Exploiting poor, disadvantaged populations to justify continued fossil fuel usage is a despicable breach of humanity,” said Kathy Egland, at the NAACP in the US. “The Trump team promoting this abomination are exhibiting the depth of greed, lack of morality and lengths the fossil industry will go to maintain their wealth.”

Saleemul Huq, director of the International Centre for Climate Change and Development in Bangladesh, who advises some of the least developed countries, said: “Any country or company continuing to champion coal and even other fossil fuels from now on would be wilfully carrying out a crime against humanity.” 


Professor Piers Forster, at the University of Leeds, UK, said: “Coal is not clean – it is dangerous. Coal emissions have to rapidly reduce to zero. Those who argue coal has a future are putting the planet under real risk.”



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