Climate Specialists Urge Aid for India and China

Davos, Switzerland, 25 January 2007 – China and India today reaffirmed their support for steps to reduce the effects of climate change, while a leading insurance executive urged transfer of clean-energy technologies to the world’s two major emerging economies.

At a special session of the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting 2007, China’s Zhang Xiaoqiang, Vice-Chairman of the National Development and Reform Commission, stressed that his country intends to follow the Kyoto Protocol, and urged speeding up negotiations and establishing concrete emission targets. While China intends to try to keep its emissions low, Zhang said, cement and steel production in China is highly energy intensive, and only around half as efficient as technologies used in the west. To meet its targets, Zhang said, China would need help from the industrialized world.

Montek S. Ahluwalia, Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission of India, reported that India is increasingly turning to nuclear power to cut its emissions, and that India’s strategy is similar to that of China. But India also expects to suffer from the effects of global warming, he said. "It’s clear that business as usual is not going to work," Ahluwalia declared. His formula: "We should work within the existing system and build on it."

Jacques Aigrain, Chief Executive Officer of Swiss Re, noted that investments to control climate change are considerably less than the cost of risk-adjusted consequences. "Waiting and seeing because one element or another is not certain is not a valid answer," said Aigrain. "No shareholders would tolerate this in business. Why should the people tolerate it from us?"

Aigrain stressed that it is essential to transfer clean-energy solutions to both India and China. They need to use coal, so they need access to clean coal-based energy technologies. Market solutions will prevail, Aigrain said, and he encouraged politicians not to hide behind global agreements. "Global agreements are the best way to get nowhere," he said. "It’s true in business and even more true in international politics. Let’s take concrete steps, like the ones in California."

California has voted to reduce its emissions to 1990 levels by 2020, representing roughly 174 million tonnes of carbon reduction, reported Fabian Núñez, Speaker of the California State Assembly.

Steve Chu, Director of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, reported that the snow pack in California’s Sierra mountains has decreased 30% to 90%. "That is our water supply," Chu pointed out. "Even a decrease of 20% leads to severe water shortages in California. A decrease of 50% means that our agriculture will be gone, and beyond that we cut into our drinking water." Chu added that rising sea levels are now at the upper range of what was predicted five or ten years ago. Science has to come forward with new solutions to climate change, ranging from renewable fuels to carbon sequestration, he declared.