dirty technology

"Dirty technologies have been applied, and they have become more subtle," he said.

The majority of Australia's energy generators already use the cheapest, dirtiest technology: coal.

We continue to use dirty technologies instead of investing in cleaner ones and we don't respect the planet's limits.

The export of dirty technology to the developing world is unacceptable; a global ban on asbestos is needed.

Opponents say nuclear is an expensive, unsafe, unneeded and dirty technology whose waste remains lethal for thousands of years.

Assistance would taper off with time to allow companies to replace dirty technology with cleaner production methods, the report said.

Yet we now know - having seen the mobile phone revolution - that doing so would have been investing in an obsolete, and arguably dirtier technology.

"It seems like a last-ditch effort to hold on to the oldest and dirtiest technology available instead of taking a step into the 21st century," he said.

'We set forth to model how the decision to adopt older and dirtier technologies affects the relationship between economic development and pollution,' the researchers say.

The best response to climate change is not by highlighting comparisons between pollution levels "achieved by other countries a long time ago using dirty technologies," Gore said.

Which leads to the second point: There is a need to put a price on carbon to force companies to abandon older, dirtier technologies for newer, cleaner ones.

Paulson also said that he believes it is 'morally wrong' to build new facilities using older, dirtier technologies when newer, cleaner technologies are commercially available.

Equally the investor in the dirty technology of the diesel bus does not pay the external cost of the extra air and noise pollution that he causes.

Joris den Blanken, the European climate and energy director for Greenpeace, warned that the subsidies could prolong the use of dirty technologies.

At the same time we should consider fiscal and commercial measures to slow trade both in highly polluting products and in products which have been manufactured using dirty technology.

McCormick said many developing countries prefer to use the lowest-cost alternatives to stretch their resources in developing power and industrial infrastructure and this often means using older, dirtier technology.

According to World Bank estimates, the cost difference between lower-emitting new technologies and older, dirtier technologies for power plants expected to be built in developing countries by 2030 is about $30 billion. '

In the power sector alone, developing countries would have to pay $30 billion more through 2030 in order to install existing clean technologies instead of older, dirtier technologies, according to World Bank estimates.

Dr Wright said "it makes no sense that the emissions trading system (ETS) rules would lead to taxpayers subsidising, even at a modest level, new investment in outdated dirty technology".

If, in light of the financial crisis, that power-generating capacity is replaced using cheap and dirty technology, then that technology is going to be around for the next 30 to 50 years," he said.

By pooling our efforts to support a new clean technology fund, administered by the World Bank, we can help developing countries bridge the gap between dirty technology and clean technology,' they wrote. '

The purpose of the fund would be to bridge the gap in developing countries between using the newest and cleanest commercially available power and industrial technologies as replacement for cheaper and dirtier technologies.

It also wants the EU to introduce tax incentives for decommissioning dirty technologies, and a fast-track system for approving new innovations, with research and priority given to "environmentally critical" areas, such as energy.

"I hope the financial crisis will not lead to a choice for cheap and dirty technologies because in both the energy sector and in industry those technologies have a lifetime of 30 to 50 years," de Boer said.

At the G8 meeting, Paulson will also seek support for the so-called Clean Technology Fund, which aims to provide financing for the cost differences between newer, cleaner emissions technologies and older, cheaper and dirtier technologies.