Obama administration should lead energy transition
R.K. Pachauri, an engineer and economist by training, is director-general of The Energy and Resources Institute in New Delhi, India, and a corecipient of the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize for his role as chief of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. The IPCC periodically issues consensus reports on the science of climate change. Senior editor Janet Raloff spoke with him about changes he hopes to see from the Obama administration.
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Pachauri: In the Fourth Assessment Report of the IPCC [2007], we tried to bring out the finding that there’s enough observed evidence to say warming of the climate is unequivocal and that over the last five decades or so, the bulk of that warming has taken place as a result of human actions. So the world is getting to see that climate change is not something in the distant future. It is already taking place and will only accelerate if we don’t reduce greenhouse gas emissions and use energy more efficiently.
How much do you expect the current recession to affect government climate-protection policies?
The financial meltdown is a major distraction. And it’s serious all over the world. So I realize that to talk about climate change, right now, and what needs to be done to meet this threat is perhaps going to fall on deaf ears. But this financial crisis is not going to take away the reality of climate change.