The head of the International Energy Agency, Faith Birol, brought to light that political and financial leaders have “a historic opportunity” during this time of crisis to come together and usher in a new era for global climate action.
Leaders around the world are currently designing economic stimulus packages, in an interview with Climate Home News, Bristol talked about the importance these plans:
I am talking with several governments and international financial institutions leaders because they are all busy designing stimulus programs for the economy – the plans they will put together will be extremely important. This is the reason I am telling them that we can use the current situation to step up our ambition to tackle climate change.
He is urging these leaders to focus their future investments on clean energy technologies and move away from harmful fossil fuels by designing “sustainable stimulus packages.”
“This is a historic opportunity for the world to, on one hand, create packages to recover the economy, but on the other hand, to reduce dirty investments and accelerate the energy transition,” said Birol.
The coronavirus has had a huge impact on economies around the world, we’ve seen the stock markets take a big hit, businesses both small and large have had to close until further notice. The aviation industry is asking for government bailouts, to avoid going into bankruptcy.
Birol spoke about this in his interview:
I understand that when I talk to governments, they are very much preoccupied with the current economic turmoil but we should keep the eye on the ball that is addressing climate change. The global economy is going through very difficult times and the energy sector is disproportionately affected. Aviation represents 1% of the global economy but it’s 8% of global oil consumption.
Birol was referring to U.S. President Donald Trump’s proposed stimulus package that included $50 billion to bail out the struggling airline industry. It should also be noted that this move by Trump comes only after he just bailed out oil companies with billions of dollars of public funds.
Rather than bailing out the oil companies and the airline industries, instead, it’s important during these times to pay attention to the effect this coronavirus is having on the environment. The canals in Italy are clearing up from pollution, seeing dolphins return. The air quality in China has improved just from the lockdown.
These changes show just how quickly things can change if leaders around the world invest in clean renewable energies and make the transition away from fossil fuels. They need to stop funding oil companies and other fossil fuels that do so much harm to the planet.
Birol is calling, pleading for these leaders to do the right thing when making their policies. “It may well be the case that we will see 2020 emissions decline. In my view, this is not a reason to celebrate because emissions reduction should be the result of [the] right energy policies,” he said.
In other words, yes it’s nice that emissions are dropping from the coronavirus, but if anything it should prove just how harmful they are on a daily basis, not just to the environment but to human health. The time is now for our so-called “world leaders” to do what is right and lead the clean energy transition.
