UN General Assembly
2013

hardship. Even worse, investments in risky activities of that type compete with more productive investments in basic infrastructure, renewable energy, health services and the like — investments that contribute to true sustainable development. Our reckless inaction is demonstrated by the inflation of the latest bubble: the carbon bubble. At least two thirds of known fossil fuel reserves cannot be burned if we are to limit the rise in global temperatures to below two degrees. The cost of renewable energy has fallen considerably in the past decade. By any measure, fossil fuels are a very bad long-term investment, yet that has not prevented trillions of dollars in private investment and fossil fuel subsidies from pouring into new infrastructure for the exploration, extraction and consumption of fossil fuels. The size of the recent housing bubble has been estimated at $4 trillion. The carbon bubble could be more than five times larger. That should be an issue of serious international concern. How do we allow trillions of dollars to flow into destructive activities while the