Al Gore: Even laggards are starting to act on climate

Former US vice president and climate campaigner Al Gore says he is very confident a global climate change agreement can be sealed in Paris this year, noting that even traditional laggards are beginning to act.

Gore, speaking after receiving a life-long achievement award in the Zayed Future Energy prize, said Paris is likely to be a real turning point.

“Yes I think we are likely to reach an agreement, he said in response to a question from RenewEconomy in Abu Dhabi.

“The odds are extremely high that world will reach agreement in Paris this year. The architecture is different to that which was pursued in the past. Some disagree with the architecture being chosen, I do not.

“Paris is likely to be a real turning point. Yes, I think we likely to reach an agreement.”

Gore pointed to the agreement between China and the US – announced days before the G20 summit in Brisbane – as an historic breakthrough. He noted the new carbon trading scheme in South Korea, which started last week and was already the world’s second largest.

And he mentioned the work of the so-called climate laggards. In Canada, two thirds of provinces were mandating reduction in carbon pollution, despite the reticence of the national government. In the US, President Obama was imposing EPA standards on coal emissions despite the objections of Congress.

And business was moving too – it was now investment more in renewable energy capacity than new fossil fuels. “You take all these different developments, and look towards end of this year, and it is really quite apparent that the world is moving.

In talking of laggards, Gore would not be drawn on Australia, where he made a surprising and somewhat controversial intervention in partnership with Clive Palmer last year in a move that won support for the renewable energy target, but paved the way for the carbon price to be dumped.

The RET, however, is still in danger, simply because it needs to Coalition government to affirm its support, rather than just leaving the policy hanging on uncertainty.

Earlier, while accepting the award, Gore said: “We have everything we need to solve this crisis, with the possible exception of political will. But political will is a renewable resource.

“We are going to prevail in this. The outcome is fore-ordained because the question has been paralyzing humanity for a couple of decades now is now being resolved into a simple question – what is right and what is wrong.

“There is really only one other question beyond that one – and that is ‘can we change?’. The answer is being provided by the people up on this stage, bringing about change that is now available.

Among the prize winners for the Zayed prize, named after the former UAE ruler who laid the vision for the emirates to plan for an existence beyond fossil fuels, were the Japanese giant Panasonic, which pointed to its work in smart technologies and battery storage as a key enabler for renewables.

A Kenyan firm, M-KOPA Solar won an award for its ‘pay-as-you-go’ energy services for off-grid customers – combining mobile payments with GSM sensor technology to enable the leasing of solar power systems.

It has installed solar in 150,000 homes, at a cheaper price than their previous sources of energy, kerosene and diesel. It hopes to take its deployment to 3,000 homes a day and chip away at the $50 billion spent on fuel subsititutes in off-grid areas of Africa and South Asia.

Another winner was Liter of Light – a Manila-based open source energy program that uses innovative technologies and community knowledge to provide solar lights such as lanterns, house lights, and streetlights.

Prizes were also awarded to schools in five different regions, including the Melbourne Girls College for a plan to use students as “human generators”, and to install solar, wind and hydro technologies on its campus.