All countries, irrespective of their income, can achieve economic growth while increasing their use of renewable energy sources, a recent study claims.
The study, by the Global Commission on the Economy and Climate, a partnership of seven economic and policy research institutes, was discussed at Wits University, Johannesburg, yesterday.
The commission was established by global leaders to discover how countries might expand their economies while mitigating the effects of climate change.
The panelists included former National Planning Commission chairman Trevor Manuel, and Minister in The Presidency Jeff Radebe.
The report was issued ahead of the UN climate summit in New York next week.
The commission called on countries to enter into a lasting and equitable international climate agreement, phase out subsidies for fossil fuels, stop deforestation by 2030 and move away from coal-fired power generation.
It concluded that, through structural and technological changes, countries at all income levels had an opportunity to build lasting growth while reducing the effects of climate change.
"We need government, businesses and society to choose low-carbon paths and to make those choices now," said Radebe. "Only once these choices are made will it translate into the collective action that we need," he said.
Helen Mountford, director of economics at the World Resource Institute, a global research organisation, and a member of the commission, said the study showed that it was better for governments to reduce fossil-fuel subsidies.
"If you reduce the subsidies you will have more finance available to provide more reliable electricity supplies," said Mountford.
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