Greenpeace activist climbs 700ft coal plant smoke stack
In his review on climate change, economist and government advisor Sir Nicholas Stern says that "climate change represents the greatest and widest-ranging market failure ever seen," but that there "is still time to avoid the worst impacts of climate change, if we act now and act internationally." Which is exactly what we have been saying all along. The scientific and moral cases for acting against climate change have been known for some time - but it's taken an economist to spur the government into action.
Stern's Review - commissioned by the Chancellor, Gordon Brown, says that "our actions over the coming few decades could create risks of major disruption to economic and social activity, later in this century and in the next, on a scale similar to those associated with the great wars and the economic depression of the first half of the 20th Century."
According to Greenpeace climate campaigner Charlie Kronick, "this report says it's down to our generation to defeat climate change or the costs we pass on to our children will be unbearable. We always knew the scientific and moral case for action was overwhelming, but this report is the final piece in the jigsaw. There are no more excuses left, no more smokescreens to hide behind, now everybody has to back action to slash emissions, regardless of party or ideology."
"Stern says we need to spend one per cent of GDP on climate change. That's the same amount of money we spend on global advertising. Surely saving the planet is more important than billboards and TV adverts."
"The government has to be congratulated for commissioning this report, but emissions of CO2 have gone up under Labour, meaning valuable time has already been lost at huge financial expense to the country. So far the science hasn't made ministers act, but we hope the bottom line will. There are so many things the government could do today, like investing in efficient decentralised power stations or tackling the growth of aviation. Tony Blair's successor has to face this challenge and deliver the goods."
Key points from the Review:
- All countries will be affected by climate change - but poorer countries will suffer more, so the richer countries should take face up to their ress responsibilities
- If we do nothing, climate change will cost us around 20% of total gross domestic product (GDP) over the next half century. That's more than the cost of both world wars and the great depression put together. But if we act now to mitigate it, the cost would only be about one per cent of total economic growth.
- The cost of mitigation efforts would be in the vicinity of 1% of total GDP growth, based on a target of 450-550ppm CO2e (3 degrees Celsius - not enough!)
- Global emissions need to peak and start coming down within the next 10 years or so.
- By expanding and linking the various emissions trading schemes around the world, we could reduce our emissions and speed up action in developing countries.
Commenting on the proposal to develop emissions trading schemes, Charlie Kronick said "the only way a carbon market works is if there's a rigorous cap, otherwise it just makes money for carbon traders without addressing the problem. One test for Blair's successor will be what he or she pushes that cap to be."
Read more about the Stern Review on the Economics of Climate Change
