Gore on climate change: ‘We’re going to win this’

Former Vice President Al Gore said Thursday he’s “very optimistic” about the world’s ability to avoid the worst of climate change. 

“We’re going to win this,” Gore said at the Climate Action 2016 summit in Washington.

“It matters a lot how quickly we win this. Damage has been done, regrettably. … But we now clearly are on a path that is almost certainly going to move us away from [a] catastrophic outcome.”

Gore said he’s hearted by the expansion of renewable electricity generation, noting that more than 90 percent of electric power that went online in 2015 was via renewable energy. 

“Coal is dead in the U.S.,” Gore said, noting that electricity generated by solar and wind is declining in price, something that has caught the eye of utilities.

“We are entering the era of renewables, and it’s a very exciting new reality,” he said.

Gore once had a less optimistic tone on climate issues: His 2006 documentary “An Inconvenient Truth” raised alarm bells about global warming and kicked off climate activism that won him and others the Nobel Peace Prize in 2007.

But he’s had a more rosy view of climate action recently. Last year, he praised efforts from governments and the private sector to cut down on their greenhouse gas emissions. And he hailed the work done by negotiators on a first-of-its-kind international pact to take on climate change last year.

On Thursday, Gore said he sees public opinion coming around on climate change, and he imagines businesses will move quickly to tap into a greener economy. The next step, he said, is to put more aggressive climate policies in place, including a carbon tax. 

“We need to accelerate this transition dramatically,” he said. “There are ways to do it, we know how to do it. But we need to clear away the obstacles.”