Enrique Pena Nieto, President of Mexico, deliver his message during the Opening of World Future Energy Summit in Abu Dhabi.
Abu Dhabi - Abu Dhabi Sustainability week opens, leaders brainstorm Paris Agreement.
Published: Mon 18 Jan 2016, 11:00 PM
Last updated: Tue 19 Jan 2016, 9:19 AM
Every two seconds, someone, somewhere in the world dies of hunger. So far this year, 250,000 hectares of forest have been lost and 470,000 chemicals were released into the atmosphere, along with nearly 47 million tonnes of carbon emissions.
Human development and lifestyle are making the earth sick. To brainstorm a solution to this, about 2,000 heads of state, government officials, businessmen and environment experts met in Abu Dhabi on Monday morning for the fourth Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week (ADSW).
Organised by Masdar, Abu Dhabi's renewable energy company on January 18-21, the ADSW is one of the world's largest gatherings on climate change, clean energy, water and food security. Happening only one month after COP-21, the UN's conference on climate change in Paris, the Abu Dhabi meet is focussed on the Paris Agreement. As per that agreement, global leaders will adopt national measures to check climate change, give access to water and electricity to every soul on the planet and double investments in renewable energy, in order to cut carbon emissions and avoid unmanageable global warming.
"We are gathering here to turn political ambitions into practical actions," said Dr Sultan bin Ahmed Sultan Al Jaber, Minister of State and Chairman of Masdar. "We convene at a time of unprecedented unity. For two decades we kept saying 'we must', 'we can', 'we should', but last month in Paris 'we did'! Never before (have) business market forces ... aligned so closely with political will to achieve sustainable development."
Enrique Pena Nieto, President of Mexico, said: "All nations ... are vulnerable to global worming, but how can we separate economic growth from green house gas emissions? Recently, we changed our lows to increase clean energy by 35 per cent by 2024 and 50 per cent by 2050. Currently, we have 27 per cent of renewable energy in our energy mix," he said.
In the last three years, Mexico managed to cut down carbon emissions by 45 per cent by decreasing the use of oil and gas.
silvia@khaleejtimes.com
How Paris deal will save lives
United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, who was present during the opening of the Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week, pointed to the "triumphal" Paris Agreement and explained how it would improve the lives of the millions of people.
"Every year, 4.3 million lives are lost, as people die prematurely from pollution. Most of them are women and children who spend their time at home, burning wood and coal. Their lives could be saved by giving them access to clean renewable energy," said Ban.
silvia@khaleejtimes.com
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