The man who Time Magazine has called the world’s best known economist is in Australia this week.
Professor Jeffrey Sachs is a senior United Nations advisor and a force behind the UN’s millennium goals and its new Sustainable Development Goals. He has also advised many governments on economic reform and is a best selling author.
He speaks to Ticky Fullerton on ABC The Business program making a strong call for facing up to the science of climate change.
. . . there’s only so much carbon that can be burned in the next three or four decades and have the planet remain safe for ourselves and our children and our children’s children. . . the main thing is this isn’t about politics, this is about physical earth, its about carbon budget not the national budget, its about understanding honestly and truthfully what the science and these catastrophes are telling us . . . this is not a game, this is not a trial warning this is the real thing we’re in now and we have a year and a half [before next International gathering] to make a suitable agreement and the major emitting countries, that includes Australia need to sit down, get their scientists around the table and learn what they will learn, which is that we need a dramatic change. It’s feasible, we have the science and we have the technology but we need to make the effort now.