Climate change could hit tilt the world’s economy into the worst global recession in recent history, a report will warn next week.
Sir Nicholas Stern, a former chief economist with the World Bank, will warn that governments need to tackle the problem head-on by cutting emissions of face economic ruin. The findings due to be released on Monday, will turn economic argument about global warming on its head by insisting that fighting global warming will save industrial nations money. The US refused to join the Kyoto protocol, the international agreement on greenhouse gas emissions because George Bush said it would harm the economy.
The contents of the Stern review into the economics of climate change-commissioned by the Treasury- have been kept secret since the nature of the work was revealed to the world’s environment ministers in Mexico this month. But Sir David King, the government’s chief scientific adviser, yesterday gave the Guardian a preview of its main findings.
Speaking at a climate change conference in Birmingham, he said: “All of (Stern’s) detailed modeling out to the year 2100 is going to indicate first of all that if we don’t take global action we are going to see a massive downturn in global economies.” He added: ‘If no action is taken we will be faced with the kind of downturn that has not been seen since the great depression and the two world wars.” Sir David called the review “ the most detailed economic analysis that I think has yet been conducted.”
(The Guardian, 26/10/2006)