Paris - The US and 18 other countries have pledged to double funds for clean energy research to a total of $20bn over five years, boosting a parallel initiative by Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg and increasing the prospects for successful agreement at the Paris climate negotiations that start on Monday.
The countries, which include the UK, Canada, China, Brazil, India and South Africa, span the biggest global economies and major emitters, oil and gas producers, and leaders in clean energy research, the White House said.
Tech and business leaders, including America’s Bill Gates, George Soros, Meg Whitman and Mark Zuckerberg, Germany’s Hasso Plattner, India’s Ratan Tata and China’s Jack Ma, will also pledge on Monday to take on additional investment risks to bring environmental technologies coming out of scientific research to the marketplace.
“This announcement should help to send a strong signal that the world is committed to helping to mobilise the resources necessary to ensure countries around world can deploy clean energy solutions in cost-effective ways in their economies,” said Brian Deese, a senior White House advisor.
The announcement came as the first of more than 130 world leaders began jetting into Paris in preparation for the crunch negotiations. They will attend the first day of the two-week talks on Monday, instructing their negotiating teams.
As the UN and the French hosts prepared for the arrival of world leaders, the Eiffel Tower was lit up with colourful climate change messages by Ban Ki-moon, the UN secretary general. Security was tight across the French capital, with many of the main roads around the conference centre shut for most of the day and a heavy police and army presence, following the terror attacks in the city earlier this month.
In central Paris, a largely peaceful demonstration of several thousand people forming a human chain was hijacked by a small group of masked anarchist activists, throwing missiles at the police and chanting that France had become “a police state”. The police responded by firing teargas and kettling the troublemakers.
Originally, a peaceful march through Paris had been planned, but that was banned by the government in the wake of the terror attacks that left 130 dead and scores more injured.
The Paris conference is seen as crucial to preventing runaway global warming, as failure to reach a deal would effectively bring to an end international efforts under the UN to control greenhouse gas emissions.(FA)
