Page 41 - WEF Reoprt 2020

Alongside the risks, the next decade

brings tremendous opportunity

movement Extinction Rebellion became crusaders will make more sustainable
more mainstream, with groups forming in lifestyle choices, such as eating plant-based
72 countries. More remarkably, millions diets or flying less, and demand more low-
68
of schoolchildren participated in organized carbon goods. 72
“climate strikes”. 69
In the short term, however, many current
In the long term, the mobilization of voters may be unwilling to support transition
youth could lead to a new green social policies: in an age of economic anxiety and
contract reordering political and business uncertainty, there is also concern about the
life, as today’s striking children gradually implications for cost of living, jobs and the
become tomorrow’s voters, workers, competitiveness of high-carbon sectors. This
investors and consumers. Politicians will concern may pitch voters against climate
seek to attract them through policies such action or make their support for climate
as the Green New Deal legislation that policies ambiguous. For example, polling
has been proposed in the United States. before Canada’s election found that many
As today’s youth demand jobs that are voters who identified climate change as a
compatible with their concern about climate key concern were nevertheless reluctant to
change, workforce climate activism may bear any cost to tackle it. And Australia’s
73
become more common, and companies “climate change election”—which took place
70
without strong environmental credentials before the recent wildfires—resulted in an
could struggle for talent. Lastly, as unexpected victory for a coalition opposed to
71
consumers, the new generation of climate aggressive action.
74
New political and social dynamics (or
events such as dramatic natural disasters
FIG U RE 3 .1 that can be climate-related) may be making

Share of Renewables, Low-Carbon available the policy space to embark on
Sources and Fossil Fuels in Power the radical trajectory needed to mitigate
Generation, World 1990–2015 drastic warming. But building broad-
based support for climate policies that
can meet the Paris Agreement’s goals
% Units will require convincing voters that a just
40
transition is possible. Policies that provide
35 Coal in power generation for social protection programmes and
job training could help to limit disruption
30 and exacerbation of socio-economic
Low-carbon sources in power generation inequalities in the transition to a low-
25 carbon economy.
Gas in power generation
20
The resilience decade
15
Renewables in power generation
10 The next 10 years will shape the outlook
for climate risk for the rest of the century.
5 To avoid the worst consequences, global
Oil in power generation emissions need to peak almost immediately
0 and decline precipitously—by 7.6% each
1990 1995 2000 2005 2010 2015
year between 2020 and 2030. This
75
implies an additional US$460 billion a year
Source: IEA. Data and statistics, “Energy Transitions Indicators”,
https://www.iea.org/data-and-statistics of clean energy investment over the next

36 A Decade Left