Read last week on IHT.com and in Le Figaro. Some of the world’s largest cities, with a few companies and banks are willing to decrease the energy consumption of large cities worldwide. This is indeed very good news.
Former US President Clinton’s Foundation is teaming with large companies and banks as well as with some of the largest megalopolis on Earth to cut the energy consumption and thus the greenhouse gases (GHG) emissions of buildings. This should create jobs and provide cleaner air in the partaking cities.
Among the various partners of this interesting idea are five banks (including Citigroup and Deutsche Bank) and numerous companies like Siemens or GE as well as Microsoft which will provide online tools. Each of the five banks will provide one billion US Dollar in loans.
According to the International Herald Tribune (IHT) article, the partaking cities are the following : Bangkok; Berlin; Chicago; Houston; Johannesburg; Karachi, London; Melbourne; Mexico City; Mumbai; New York; Rome; São Paulo; Seoul; Tokyo and Toronto.
As one can see, there are places from the five continents and not necessarily from countries that are already willing to mitigate climate change. Among these places are the most polluted cities of the world : Mumbai (also known as Bombay, India) and Mexico City.
As former US President Bill Clinton states :
“The businesses, banks and cities partnering with my foundation are addressing the issue of global warming because it’s the right thing to do, but also because it’s good for their bottom line. They’re going to save money, make money, create jobs and have a tremendous collective impact on climate change all at once.”
Source : IHT article
Mr. Clinton understands very well the situation at hand, as this quote from his website proofs :
We have to reduce about 80 percent of our greenhouse gas emissions over the next 10 to 15 years… This is a very, very serious problem, but also a phenomenal opportunity.
With these two sentences, the problem is totally summarized. There is a huge challenge to be taken up, but this same challenge will provide many jobs, large investments with extraordinary returns as well as important money savings.
This is to me great news as I have been thinking for a year that buildings hold one of the most promising solutions to help in mitigating climate change. (See related article) Indeed, according to the IHT article :
Energy use in buildings accounts for about a third of global releases of heat-trapping greenhouse gases.
To learn out more, please visit the Clinton Climate Initiative page on Mr. Clinton’s Foundation website.
French source : Le Figaro