IQ2US debate about carbon emission Jan 15, 2009

The restoration of the ozone layer proves that we can solve environmental problems when we have good replacements for pollutants. In an interview for America's Newsroom, Lomborg points out that the lesson for climate change is that we need to innovate cheap and reliable energy that can truly outcompete fossil fuels.

By September, the world’s 193 governments will meet in New York and agree on a set of ambitious, global targets for 2030. Over the next 15 years these targets will direct the $2.5 trillion to be spent on development assistance, as well as countless trillions in national budgets.

Reliable and affordable energy is vital for today's developing and emerging economies. Driven mostly by its fivefold increase in coal use, China's economy has grown 18-fold in the past 30 years and lifted 680 million people out of poverty. Worldwide, almost three billion people still don't have access to modern energy, instead they use firewood, dung and crop waste for cooking and heating indoors, which is so polluting, the World Health Organization estimates they kill one of every 13 people that die on the planet.