UN climate chief urges renewables boom for healthier, wealthier future

UN’s new climate chief Simon Stiell said on Wednesday at the COP27 summit, both wealthy and poor countries can reap huge economic, social and environmental gains by rapidly rolling out more renewable energy and taking other climate action.

“It’s good business for them to embrace the transition,” Stiell said in an interview “It’s a healthier, wealthier future.”

Stiell said making real progress toward climate goals will require ramping up what is already working, finding ways to pull along laggards, providing a massive boost in climate finance and increasing political will to make climate action a priority.

But he said moving away from the status quo was a major issue. “There’s so much vested interest in where we are,” he said. “That’s the challenge.”

Stiell further explained his plan to get governments to nearly halve emissions by 2030 and find vast amounts of new finance for clean energy and adaptation to climate threats is to break the job down into what needs to be done in each of the eight years left.