Guest essay by Eric Worrall

Paris Agreement Architect and Former UNFCCC head Christiana Figueres is disappointed at the ongoing failure of heavy industry to reduce their dependency on vast amounts of reliable energy.

INTERVIEW-Dirty industry undermines push to curb global warming – ex-UN climate chief

by Sophie Hares | @SophieHares | Thomson Reuters Foundation

Friday, 23 February 2018 16:45 GMT

“The United States is in a whopping collection of one country”

By Sophie Hares

TEPIC, Mexico, Feb 23 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – Industry’s dependence on polluting fossil fuels is at odds with a “revolution” in transport and renewable energy, and could stop the world doing a crucial U-turn on rising emissions of climate-changing gases by 2020, a former U.N. climate chief warned.

“We’re definitely not on track with everything to do with heavy industry that continues to depend on intense, high-carbon electricity, and we’re not on track with land use,” said Figueres, former executive secretary of the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change.

“So what happens if we don’t get there is we increase our risk and increase the exposure to extreme weather events,” she told the Thomson Reuters Foundation in an interview.

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A push by cities in the United States to join states and corporations in moving forward with action to tackle climate change is a counterbalance to President Donald Trump’s decision to pull his country out of the Paris deal, said Figueres.

“The United States is in a whopping collection of one country, the only country in the world, that has said it would like to leave the Paris Agreement,” she said.

“It has had a minimal impact internationally as no other country has decided to follow suit,” she added.

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