In an Op-Ed titled "Urgent Steps to Stop the Climate Door Closing," the authors argue that significantly more effort needs to be made to increase global efforts to address climate change, especially ahead of the Durban Climate Change Conference, and they provide suggestions to policy makers on the way forward.
10 March 2011: Fatih Birol, Chief Economist of the International Energy Agency (IEA), and Lord Nicholas Stern, Chair of the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change at the London School of Economics, have published an Op-Ed titled “Urgent Steps to Stop the Climate Door Closing,” in which they warn against the danger of not doing enough to tackle climate change.
Published by the Financial Times with highlights offered in an IEA press release, the Op-Ed argues that significantly more effort needs to be made to increase global efforts to address climate change, especially ahead of the 17th session of the Conference of the Parties (COP 17) to the UNFCCC in Durban, South Africa, at the end of 2011.
They underscore that current emission reduction pledges by 2020, even if implemented fully, are collectively not enough to put the world on a path to avoid a warming of 2°C above 19th century temperatures. In order to intensify efforts, Birol and Stern advise policy makers to: use benchmarking tools to bring energy efficiency to best practice levels; create incentives for technology development and disincentives for carbon emissions; and prioritize fuel efficiency, fuel diversification and new vehicle technologies. [IEA Press Release]