The Economist backs renewables as "a matter of justice"

The Economist's cover story today is: How to live with climate change. The paper says, 'It won’t be stopped, but its effects can be made less bad.' Climate change also provides

an extra reason for rich countries - which caused the problem in the first place - to find ways to help poor countries develop. That is a matter of justice, not just humanity.

The paper argues that prosperity is the best protection against global warming, but it recognises that as economies grow they consume more energy, which threatens to make the problem worse.

... rich countries can help, by offering poor countries support for greener energy technologies, and thus allowing them to make use of their capacity for generating renewable energy from water, wind and sunlight.

pic: Alamy/Corbis