Obama makes plea for clean energy

CORDOBA/BUENOS AIRES, Argentina - Former US president Barack Obama made an impassioned plea on Friday for the world to embrace clean energy and overcome climate change at a gathering of experts in Argentina.

Obama told an audience of government ministers, business leaders and young environmental activists they were part of a generation with the scientific means and imagination to begin to repair the planet.

"This is no longer speculation, this is no longer an issue that we can put off, this is firmly in the present," said Obama, who signed the Paris climate agreement that US President Donald Trump has signaled his intention to abandon.

"If we take advantage of this critical time, we have the chance to slow and even stop a trend that could be disastrous,"

"We cannot condemn our children and their children to a future they cannot repair," said Obama.

"We are the first generation to feel the impact of climate change but we're also the last generation that can do something about it."

Obama also warned the Paris accord would not solve the climate crisis on its own, and that as technology evolved, more ambitious targets would have to be set.

"If we set bolder targets then we will open the floodgates for businesses, scientists, engineers to reach the high-tech low carb investment and innovation that's needed on a scale we've never seen before."

The two-day Green Economy conference in the central city of Cordoba heard from experts including Nobel economic laureate Edmund Phelps that the global fight for clean energy rests with businesses and ordinary people because governments were lagging behind.

Obama's call came as Argentine President Mauricio Macri announced on Friday the start of work on the Cauchari solar park, planned to be Latin America's largest solar park with a production capacity of 300 megawatts.

Macri made the announcement from Buenos Aires through a videoconference with the governor of Jujuy province, Gerardo Morelos, and the head of the cabinet of ministers, Marcos Pena, who were at the plant's location in Cauchari.

"We are putting in place the construction of a solar park, which will give energy to the Argentineans. Solar energy does not pollute," said Macri.

The project is made up of three parks - Cauchari Solar I, II and III - that will see the installation of a total of 1.2 million solar panels.

It attracted an investment of $511 million and will create 600 jobs. It is being supported by China, with the Export-Import Bank of China financing part of the project loans.

Afp - Xinhua