As climate talks in Durban, South Africa get underway today, a host of electric cars will be on hand to give COP17 delegates the chance to try out the cleaner future in the automotive industry.
A dozen electric cars from the Renault-Nissan Alliance will be on hand for the United Nation’s Climate Change Conference which opened yesterday and runs until the December 9, 2011. Delegates representing 190 countries will attend as they try and agree ways to curb rising greenhouse gas emissions and tackle climate change.
Models including the Nissan Leaf and Renault Fluence Z.E will be joined by the soon-to-launch Renault Twizy Z.E at the conference to transport delegates. As electric cars they have the potential to be recharged by using electricity generated from clean renewable energy sources such as solar and wind power-making them an ideal way to cut transport-related CO2 and other emissions.
The Renault-Nissan Alliance is a world leader in electric-vehicle technology, with plans to sell 1.5 million zero-emission cars by 2016.
As the talks get underway, the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) revealed that thirteen of its warmest years recorded have happened in the last decade and a half, with concentrations of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere reaching new highs.
It is hoped that the talks could help agree new measures to tackle the rise in the climate-altering emissions. According to The Guardian, South Africa, President Jacob Zuma said that global warming is already causing conflict and suffering in Africa, as he opened the conference on Monday-from drought in Sudan and Somalia to flooding in South Africa.
"For most people in the developing countries and Africa, climate change is a matter of life and death," the South African leader said.
