Stern start
3 November 2006
Although the Stern Review on the Economics of Climate Change was commissioned by Gordon Brown, Nicholas Stern is a highly respected researcher and of course, a former chief economist at the World Bank.
The report attempts to cover very complex economic ground – estimating costs over decades and factoring in social and economic changes predicted to take place – therefore it should be commended for attempting such calculations which are a strong tool for persuasion. However, as a consequence many are seeing it as more a political rather than a scientific document.
Taking heed of existing studies on mitigation costs, along with new results from previous calculations on the impact on global GDP, Stern has been accused of “cherry picking” alarming results on the link between natural disasters and climate change. But, just as thousands of delegates from more than 180 countries will fly to Nairobi, Kenya, for the floundering Kyoto Protocol talks on climate change, arguments about the validity of climate science may be finally dying down.
Perhaps people are now beginning to focus on how much the world should be allocating to deal with and prepare for a changing climate, however derived.
Snipe painting