‘We’re running out of time’: WWF calls for urgent clean energy investment

Governments and investors must make clean energy their priority if they want to dramatically reduce greenhouse gas emissions, campaign group WWF has urged.

Hopes to include a decarbonisation target in the energy bill were dashed in the House of Commons on Tuesday, with MPs voting against the amendment. But the WWF has launched a new global campaign called Seize Your Power, under which it is urging governments and financial institutions to invest in clean energy.

Jim Leape, director-general of WWF International, said, “We are running out of time. We know that if we continue to rely on fossil fuels we will face a future of worsening air pollution and an increasingly inhospitable climate.

“We call on political and financial decision-makers to seize their power to make the switch to clean and sustainable renewable energy and end the inertia of coal, oil and gas.”

The campaign also includes online action from the public. People can sign a petition that calls on institutions to increase their financing of clean technologies such as solar, wind and hydro energy.

Samantha Smith, leader of the global climate and energy initiative of WWF International, said, “The energy markets’ driving forces include speculation, institutional inertia, lack of accurate information, perverse incentives but also huge economic and political interests.

“It’s time to reframe the debate and expose the real costs of fossil fuels and the real opportunity of the renewable energy sector.”

The initial starting goal is to collect $40 billion (£26 billion) over the next year, considered essential to start switching funds from the fossil fuels industry to cleaner sources of power.

Further reading:

Attention turns to Lords as Commons votes down energy bill decarbonisation target

Clean energy can save UK £45bn and slash emissions, says climate watchdog

WWF: Europe can be 100% renewable by 2050

The Guide to Limitless Clean Energy 2013