BAKU, Azerbaijan, November 6. Green energy transition must be fair, General Director of the Institute for Economic Research on Innovation at the Tshwane University of Technology (South Africa) Rasigan Maharajh said during a panel session themed "Habitat: everyone has their own, everyone has the same" at the 21st Annual Meeting of the Valdai International Discussion Club in Sochi today, Trend reports.
"We must unite to ensure a transformation that organizes us as a society and ensures mobility, and this will undoubtedly require us to abandon the subjugation of others, oppression, and inequality.
Thanks to new technological developments, this is becoming more widespread. However, it's necessary for high-quality infrastructure to be spread in sufficient quantity across all habitats as quickly as possible," the expert also said.
He pointed out that 650 million people live on Earth without access to electricity, and 600 million of them live on the African continent.
"Therefore, we must integrate the principles of a just transition. We must ensure that the transition from fossil fuels to green energy is economically conscious, environmentally responsible, and just," he explained.
Maharajh mentioned the necessity of preventing the promotion of antagonistic development models and implementing the principle of solidarity in relationships.
"We have everything we need to ensure that all of humanity can enjoy a certain standard of living without despair and humiliation. We must go beyond mere adaptation or mitigation of climate change impacts, and this will require scientific and technological progress, which results from shared agendas for environmental research and study," he added.
To note, the 21st Annual Meeting of the Valdai International Discussion Club commenced in Russia’s Sochi on November 4.
This year's theme is "Lasting Peace On What Basis? Common Security and Equal Opportunities for Development in the 21st Century".
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