CHICAGO, Jan. 23 (Xinhua) -- Former U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson has called for stronger political will to address the threat of climate change, adding that other countries can follow China's example to benefit from market-based green technology in combating the challenge.
In an op-ed the Paulson Institute published on Wednesday, its chairman Henry M. Paulson, Jr. called for stronger political will to address the threat of climate change, which "poses an extreme risk to the global economy, plunders our environment, and threatens national security."
To avoid the worst-case outcomes that threaten to dramatically change life on this planet, Paulson said, "What is needed is the political will to act."
"As world leaders meet this week in Davos, they should find concrete ways to move forward collectively on climate solutions," he added.
Paulson urged carbon pricing systems to be adopted across the globe, along with a tool called "green" finance.
China has launched an ambitious initiative to develop a vibrant green finance sector in a short period, and its efforts are driving change at home and abroad as countries seek innovative means to finance their own efforts in green development and to mitigate climate change, said Paulson Institute officials during an event in Beijing in May 2018.
Paulson Institute's Green Finance Center has developed and tested innovative financing models and advised China's financial institutions how to promote green growth.
Although "the United States has a competitive advantage when it comes to developing leading clean tech," Paulson wrote, "it is in China where large-scale deployment of these technologies will make the biggest difference."
He pointed out that the successful market-based use of green tech in China can "demonstrate the benefits to other developing countries struggling to solve similar climate challenges."
"We have the ideas, capital, and technologies needed to turn the tide and transition to a low-carbon economy. We just need world leaders to put them to use," Paulson argued at the end of his article titled "Accelerate the Fight Against Climate Change".
