“The world is facing a sustainability revolution”

Soelden In recent years, the former US Vice President Al Gore has repeatedly warned loudly about the consequences of climate change. In an interview with Handelsblatt, he is now optimistic.

The crisis is coming to a head. At the same time, the world is now facing a “global sustainability revolution, which is being driven in part by machine learning, artificial intelligence, the Internet of Things and biotechnology,” said Gore at the Giga summit of the Handelsblatt in an interview with journalist Miriam Meckel.

This new “green revolution” has “the extent and effects of the industrial revolution, coupled with the speed of the digital revolution”.

Although technology played a key role in causing the climate crisis, technical innovations will now help to “break through humanity’s destructive dependence on fossil fuels,” said Gore. This means that although climate change cannot be stopped, its worst effects can be halted. “I am optimistic that we have finally reached a turning point and that we now have the political will to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to zero.”

Great hopes for Germany and Europe

As a leading industrial nation, Germany is a role model, says Gore. The numbers prove him right. In Germany, the share of green technologies in the gross domestic product was 15 percent last year. This emerges from a report by the Federal Environment Ministry.

Environmental technology products and processes, such as green power generation, circular economy and sustainable mobility, are in international demand. German greentech providers have successfully positioned themselves on the world market. Within the “Environmental Technology and Resource Efficiency” sector, 14 percent of all providers worldwide come from Germany. For comparison: Germany’s share of global economic output was around 3.4 percent in 2020.

The German automotive industry has a key role to play in the fight against the climate crisis because of its global reputation, said Gore. “I hope that Germany accelerates the switch to electromobility.” Car manufacturers all over the world made commitments to turn away from the internal combustion engine, which is why fossil propulsion technologies would soon disappear from the market.

Investors are reluctant to finance

But promoting new technologies costs money, Gore admitted. Banks and investors promise to finance primarily companies that operate according to ecological criteria. But politicians must “give donors the certainty that investments do not pose any risks” in order to free private capital, especially in developing countries.

Ottmar Edenhofer, Director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, confirms that investors find it difficult to finance sustainable technologies for fear that politicians will not be able to stick to their ambitious climate targets.

The heads of state from 197 nations and around two thousand non-governmental organizations, which, however, do not have voting rights, are currently discussing the implementation of these climate goals at the World Climate Conference in Glasgow. Because only all states can act together effectively against climate change, explained Gore.

Before the Paris climate protection agreement, rapprochement between the USA and China was the key to solving the climate issue, now it is the partnerships between the USA and Germany and Europe. “The EU has provided the decisive impetus for the future that the world needed” and in the past has expressed “the conscience of mankind”. Now it’s the turn of the United States.

A return to natural climate solutions

In addition to new innovations, Gore advised people to think about what they already know: “The oldest known technology for reducing carbon in the atmosphere is the tree,” he says.

Natural climate solutions such as sustainable forestry and regenerative agriculture could not only help to reduce emissions, protect nature and preserve biodiversity. They also created new jobs.

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