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David Attenborough Among Renowned Experts Calling For Global Apollo-Style Program For Clean Energy

September 17th, 2015 by Joshua S Hill

One of the world’s most familiar faces, and even more familiar voices, Sir David Attenborough has joined his voice to a group of renowned experts calling for an Apollo-style research program intended to decrease the cost of renewable energy.
Sir David Attenborough is one of the planet’s most famous scientists, known the world over for the soothing tones of his naturalist-documentary voice-overs. The 89-year old has joined his voice to an open letter written via The Guardian calling for world leaders to commit to backing the Global Apollo Programme, itself intending to make renewable energy cheaper than oil within 10 years.
In a speech delivered at Rice University in September of 1962, then-US President John F Kennedy declared that the United States would put a man on the moon by the end of that decade. It was a ridiculous and absurdly overreaching statement, but when that was accomplished in 1969 with Apollo 11.
The same drive and passion that pushed the US to land a man on the moon — even though it had barely even got its space flight program off the ground — is needed now to impact the way renewable energy is developed around the world. The Global Apollo Program, named in honor of the famous US Apollo space program, intends to “accelerate the decarbonisation of the world economy through more rapid technical progress, achieved through an internationally-coordinated program of research and development over a 10-year period.”


Many names have already gotten behind the Global Apollo Program, and a recent open letter published in The Guardian — including Sir David Attenborough’s name — is calling on world leaders to similarly back the program.
“The plan requires leading governments to invest a total of $15 billion a year in research, development and demonstration of clean energy,” the 26 signatories write. “That compares to the $100 billion currently invested in defence research and development globally each year.”

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