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LONDON, ENGLAND - PROGRESS in the battle against climate change will continue despite economic woes around the world, the head of the United Nation's Nobel Prize-winning scientific panel wrote on Monday.
In an article published in The Guardian newspaper, Mr Rajendra Pachauri wrote that 'global society is seriously questioning whether today's problems can be solved through short-term measures, as has been the case with routine ups and downs in the economy during past cycles.'
'The world is beginning to look at the deep underlying causes of its current problems, and is preparing for radical change,' Mr Pachauri, the chief of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), wrote.
He argued that the world 'has reached an unprecedented level of awareness of the science behind climate change, with the contents of the IPCC's fourth assessment disseminated extensively by the media worldwide.'
He added that existing resolve to reduce the world's dependence on fossil fuels 'is being strengthened considerably by increasing oil prices'.
'It is ... the cross-roads in human progress that compels a major turn in direction,' Mr Pachauri wrote.
'I believe the current generation is ready for such a shift and is unlikely to be distracted for long by an economic downturn that emanates from serious systemic distortions in existing patterns of growth.'
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