Töpfer: A new climate agreement must be binding and involve all those who emit greenhouse gases. Moreover, political debate must not be allowed to eclipse scientific findings, for example the two-degree target for maximum warming, which we can still achieve.
A new agreement must extensively regulate the issue of adaptation to climate change, even in developing countries, and it must make both the tools that facilitate this adaptation, i.e. trading in carbon dioxide emissions, and the cooperation between highly developed countries and developing countries on energy issues far more efficient than they have been so far.
Finally and most importantly, we must ensure that we do not simply stumble toward 2050 having agreed on a non-binding target of reducing emissions by more than 50 percent, but that we make this a binding target which we can achieve by implementing specific measures.
Brain power is the resource we cannot do without
Allianz.com News: The Kyoto Protocol, the global climate protection agreement, expires in 2012. What factors need to be considered for a follow-up agreement?
How can we involve India and China?
Töpfer: India and China will inevitably become involved because their own interests are at stake. The two countries are already suffering significantly from climate change; even now they are experiencing water supply problems. In these countries, which both have populations in excess of one billion, any decline in the situation would have far-reaching negative effects.
Moreover, India and China need non-carbon energy sources: fossil fuels are becoming scarcer and more expensive, thus limiting the growth potential of countries like these two which need to develop their economies in order to fight poverty. Thus for economic reasons alone, more and more countries are likely to join the search for non-carbon energy sources, not just to fuel their power stations, but also for the transport sector, which is an increasing challenge.
By cooperating on technological issues, we can tackle climate change together. With new sources of energy, better technology and greater efficiency, we can succeed in reconciling economic development with a stabilization in climate evolution.
What is the decisive factor in climate policy?
Töpfer: The most decisive factor is definitely the need for highly developed countries to take action. If they do not, nothing else will work.
The second factor is that we must take responsibility for adapting to the climate change that is already happening, because many developing countries now also regard that as being extremely important.
What worries you most about climate change?
Töpfer: One of my main causes of concern is what I call the "Mikado" (jackstraws) mentality, the belief that the first one to move will lose, and that you must never do anything that no-one else is doing. We have to overcome this attitude as quickly as possible.
We must reach a point where the first to make a move is the winner. There is sure to be a significant return for the new technology frontrunner, and the best way of becoming that frontrunner is by looking at the advantages rather than the disadvantages.
And what encourages you most?
Töpfer: The fact that more and more people all over the world are realizing that debate on energy and the climate is not just a preoccupation of highly developed countries, but that these issues actually have a significant impact on war and peace in our world. Not only is their significance reflected in disputes over access to limited fossil fuels, but they also determine our communal well-being on this planet.
In recent months we have seen this belief become more firmly anchored in the minds of the population as a whole. It is no longer simply an issue to be discussed in scientific circles or by specialist politicians, and when the general public begins to make noises about such things, then politicians become far more active.
In your opinion, what role must companies play?
Töpfer: Companies initially consider the issue from the point of view of economics, and they too know that we need new technologies in order continue life without fossil fuels. To find these new technologies, we need to use our key energy source: brain power. That is the power we need most of all.
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