Schwarzenegger: Climate change is the real pandemic

Former California governor and star actor Arnold Schwarzenegger on Thursday called on governments not to "invest in the past" and use stimulus programmes designed to keep countries afloat during the coronavirus pandemic to build a future clean-energy economy.

Speaking via video link from Los Angeles to the Austrian World Summit in Vienna, Schwarzenegger questioned why governments were using taxpayers money to bail out fossil fuel companies.

"If investors aren't supporting those declining companies, why should taxpayers?," he said. "Government must realise what the smart money knows instinctively: don't invest in the past."

During the summit the Terminator star said that “forward-looking decisions” on battling climate change and pollution are needed now as trillions are being poured into rebuilding economies around the globe.

"Pollution and climate change kills 7 million people every year," he said. "So that's the real pandemic ... and there is no vaccine."

Schwarzenegger said efficient uses of money would include making buildings more energy-efficient and weatherproof, installing energy-efficiency appliances, cars using alternative fuels and planting trees.

Since leaving political office in 2011, the Austrian-American actor has devoted time to environmental causes.

A Republican, he has sparred with US President Donald Trump over climate issues.