Dire warnings for economy over climate change
The environmental advisor to former US President Barack Obama warned this week that “climate change is real”.
Speaking at a conference in Lisbon organised by the American Chamber of Commerce in Portugal, Juan Verde said that there would be “no economy without our planet”.
Verde was one of the speakers at the conference “Towards a Green Economy: Opportunities for Business and Challenges for the XXIst Century” which took place on Thursday at the EDP Auditorium.
“A greener economy makes sense from a competitive perspective. It makes sense to think about the future, especially if companies want to be competitive in the XXIst century and find a balance between the economy and the planet”, he said.
Juan Verde who was also an environmental advisor to former US Vice-President Al Gore, was one of the guest speakers at the conference in which he was keynote opening speaker.
The environmental entrepreneur said that the conference was “a great opportunity for institutions, governments but also companies and entrepreneurs too”, he said.
“The debate is over, despite what Trump might say, the fact of the matter is that climate change is real and we, as human beings, are the ones who are speeding up the process”, he said adding that probably “90% of climate change was real and that our behaviour was and is catastrophic for the global economy”.
“Now is the time to act” he implored at the conference which also featured speakers such as Greg Lowe, Sustainability Director for commercial risk insurers AON, Phil Dominy, Director of Energy and Sustainability for consultants EY and Diogo da Silveira, CEO of Navigator. BCDS Portugal as partner organised the round table “Leading Business Solutions Towards a Carbon Neutral Economy” in which João Wengorovius Meneses moderated the panel with the participation of João Paulo Oliveira CEO of Navigator and José Melo Bandeira, CEO of Veolia Portugal.