The former chief economist to the Treasury, Sir Nicholas Stern, will today deliver a keynote speech to the Royal Economic Society in London on the need for urgent action to combat climate change.
His speech comes days before a major climate summit in Bali which will be attended by environment ministers from across the world. Meanwhile the Corporate Leaders Group on Climate Change, overseen by the Prince of Wales, today unveiled a Bali communiqué to which many of the world's leading brands are signatories.
Sir Nicholas, author of one of the most thorough economic analyses of climate change ever undertaken, told an audience in Manchester last night: "If I was doing it [the report] again I'd portray the risks as bigger." Today's speech is expected to call for deep, mandatory cuts in emissions from the industrialised world, funding mechanisms to protect the world's forests, technological innovation and a greatly expanded carbon trading market.
The Corporate Leaders Group communiqué calls on world leaders at Bali to introduce tough, legally binding caps on global emissions. Yet signatories include British Airways, the airport operator BAA, EasyJet, Shell and the utility company E. ON, which is currently seeking the UK government's approval for the first new coal fired power station to be built in the UK for thirty years - at Kingsnorth in Kent.
Responding to these
developments, John Sauven, Executive Director of Greenpeace UK said: "The Stern report clearly demonstrated just how badly climate change
could hurt our economy, and now its author is telling us the risks are even
greater. Meanwhile companies like BAA and E.ON want to build new runways and
coal fired power stations while at the same time demanding tough action on
climate change from the international community. There is a total lack of
coherence here that world leaders must address next week."
ENDS
