U.S. Commerce Secretary Gary Locke urged the 192 nations who sent representatives to the UN Climate Change Conference to
- resist pressures from those with vested interests in the status quo,
- eliminate incentives to the petroleum industry, and
- design incentives to create jobs in the clean-energy industry.
Locke said unparalleled economic growth occurred in the 20th Century because of two factors:
- access to cheap, abundant fossil fuels, and
- ignorance or disregard for the fact that those fuels produced greenhouse gas pollution that caused global warming.
Both of those factors, he said, belong to history.
“Those days are over.
“What’s required is nothing less than completely redesigning the way we produce and consume energy….
“We’re talking about creating an entirely new model of economic growth.
“The world has spent a century investing in petroleum infrastructure, Locke said: refineries, pipelines, stations. That creates vested interests in keeping things just the way they are.
Notes Jeff Mcmahon, Locke urged nations to stop catering to ‘vested interests’.