Gorbachev urges G8 to back solar power

Former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev on Wednesday urged the world’s biggest industrialised nations to set up a 50-billion-dollar (44-billion-euro) fund to support solar power, warning that oil or nuclear energy were not viable energy sources for the future.

Gorbachev — who chairs an environmental thinktank, Green Cross International — called on leaders of the Group of Eight (G8) industrialised nations to invest in renewable energy sources, in a statement marking the 20th anniversary of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster.