Global warming to cost trillions

2006-10-30 09:20

London - Global warming will cost the world up to seven trillion dollars in the next decade unless governments take drastic action soon, according to a major British report.

Former World Bank chief economist Sir Nicholas Stern was commissioned last year by finance minister Gordon Brown to lead a review into the economics of climate change.

The Observer newspaper on Sunday published excerpts from the 700-page report, which adds that unchecked global warming could make 200 million people refugees from drought or flood.

Publication of the report is likely to fuel debate in Britain over whether the government should introduce a tougher regime of "green taxes" to cut carbon emissions.

According to the Observer, the Stern report says unchecked climate change would cost up to 3.68 trillion pounds (6.98 trillion dollars) - more than World Wars I and II and the Great Depression of the 1930s.

It also warns that the world needs to spend about one percent of global gross domestic product - equivalent to about 184 billion pounds - on the issue now or face a bill up to 20 times higher than that in future, the paper says.

Kyoto successor needed now

Stern also calls for a successor to the Kyoto agreement on greenhouse gases to be signed next year, not in 2010 or 2011 as planned, because the problem is so urgent, it adds.

Failure to act quickly would trigger a global recession, he reportedly adds, and calls for an international framework to tackle the issue.

The Observer says his report is the first heavyweight contribution to the debate on climate change by an economist rather than a scientist.

Environmental activist group Greenpeace said it removed any doubt about the need to tackle climate change.

"If we are to avert catastrophe then there has to be a real cost to emitting carbon and that means higher taxes on flying and gas-guzzlers. We owe it to future generations," a spokesperson said.

- AFP