Financial crisis has lessons for climate fight:expert

GOLD COAST, Australia (Reuters) – The world still has the funds and ability to fight climate change and nations should not use the financial crisis to delay policies on tackling global warming, a top carbon expert said on Thursday.

James Cameron, vice-chairman of London-based Climate Change Capital, said the mobilization of trillions of dollars over recent months had demonstrated the strength and scale of cooperation in tackling a global crisis.

“We run the risk that governments will choose to focus on the near-term crisis and allow themselves the delusion that there is more time available to deal with a crisis coming slowly from afar,” he told a major carbon conference in Australia.

“So I accept that there is a danger that climate change could slip in the priority list for governments,” he told delegates.

“But we have learned that we are able to cooperate across borders to deal with the financial crisis, and beyond political boundaries, so we can mobilize capital very fast and that we do so in ways that support the continuation of our market systems.”

Reuters