Legendary British TV presenter and naturalist Sir David Attenborough has expressed his support for a 10-year project that aims to develop technology for clean energy.
The veteran broadcaster joins the more than 25 leading scientists, academics, executives and politicians who have urged the international community to adopt the Global Apollo Program (GAP) by the start of the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Paris, France this December.
The GAP is designed [pdf] to make supplies of renewable energy more affordable compared to fossil fuels through the help of public investment to technology development and research worth around $15 billion each year globally.
Attenborough said that making clean and renewable energy cheaper compared to gas, oil or coal would be enough to offset the effects of climate change.
"Just one thing, however, would be enough to halt climate change," Attenborough said. "If clean energy became cheaper than coal, gas or oil, fossil fuel would simply stay in the ground."
Other high-profile supporters of the GAP include physicist and science broadcaster Brian Cox, former British energy secretary Ed Davey and former Financial Services Authority (FSA) chairman Lord Adair Turner.
Advocates of the GAP argue that a practical approach to solving climate change will not only be able to pay for itself, but it will also provide nations of the world with economic benefits.
They said the scale of investment needed for the GAP is comparable to the one used for the United States' Apollo space missions during the 1960s, which was able to land the first man on the moon.
They also pointed out that the plan for coordinated research and development would help national governments save money in the long run and reduce the cost of bills typically paid by consumers.
Attenborough explained that some of the most brilliant minds must once again unite in order to produce an international program that would discover breakthrough technologies for clean energy.
He said that majority of the great technological advances made in the past 100 years came from research funded by the public. These include satellites, computers, smartphones and the Internet.
Attenborough added that the electricity that people need are already available from unlimited sources such as the sun and wind. The veteran TV presenter said that the sun, for example, produces 5,000 times more energy to the surface of the planet Earth than what people need.
