Earth Today | Top 1% have key role in clean energy transition - report

THE WORLD’S richest one per cent are being called upon to play their part in helping to overcome the climate crisis through their support of the transition away from fossil fuels.

A policy brief from the United Nations Environment Programme, titled ‘Cheaper. Cleaner. Unstoppable. Clean technologies that are delivering for the climate’, said it will be necessary for the world’s richest people to not only shift investment portfolios, but also redirect capital from fossil fuels to renewable energy and clean technologies.

This is even as they become early adopters of new and/or emerging technologies that help to make them accessible to the wider population. Also important, the brief advanced, is that they “transition private homes, transport and travel to low-carbon alternatives”.

“The wealthiest one per cent and the high-consumption middle class are not just individual actors, they are strategic levers for systemic tipping points. Their disproportionate control over capital, influence and consumption gives them the ability to reshape global markets and accelerate change”, the document noted.

The global climate crisis, which puts lives and livelihoods at risk from extreme heat and extreme weather events, among other impacts, requires a sharp decline in global greenhouse gas emissions. Emissions drive the warming of the planet – courtesy of the human consumption of fossil fuels, such as coal, oil and gas – and trigger the range of risks and impacts.

Central to reducing emissions, scientists have said, is the transition away from fossil fuels to the adoption of renewables such as solar and wind, and clean technologies.

According to the brief, the rich can, therefore, also provide the necessary funding for “high-risk, high-reward interventions such as research and development, demonstration projects, policy advocacy, climate litigation, capacity building and just transition initiatives that can unlock systemic change”.

Further, they can leverage their social influence, helping to normalise behaviour change, even as they throw their support behind “progressive climate policy, carbon pricing and financial disclosure standards that align markets with climate stability”.

“This creates political space for ambitious climate action”, the brief said.

But it is not only the top one per cent who have a role. Other stakeholders, including governments and the private sector, as well as multilateral development banks and climate funds, also have their part to play.

The policy brief said that while governments “align subsidies and public finance with transition and development goals by progressively shifting support towards clean technologies”, for example, the private sector can ensure that capital expenditure is in sync “with net-zero pathways, prioritising renewable energy, electrification and low-carbon materials”.

Multilateral banks and climate funds can, meanwhile, “support green industrial strategies that build domestic manufacturing and workforce capacity”. They can also, among other things, “apply gender-responsive investment criteria, including requirements for sex-disaggregated results, inclusive stakeholder engagement”, as well as “support for women-led enterprises and workers”.

pwr.gleaner@gmail.com