CLIMATE CHANGE THE KEY DOCUMENTS

THE KEY SOURCE MATERIAL / REPORTS ARE : -

STERN REVIEW ON THE ECONOMICS OF CLIMATE CHANGE

The report prepared by Sir Nicholas Stern, Head of the Government Economic Service and Adviser to the Government (U,K) on the Economics of Climate Change:

LINK FOR ... FULL REPORT

LINK FOR ... EXECUTIVE SUMMARY  

 'Using the results from formal economic models, the Review estimates that if we don’t
act, the overall costs and risks of climate change will be equivalent to losing at least
5% of global GDP each year, now and forever. If a wider range of risks and impacts
is taken into account, the estimates of damage could rise to 20% of GDP or more.

In contrast, the costs of action – reducing greenhouse gas emissions to avoid the
worst impacts of climate change – can be limited to around 1% of global GDP each
year.

The investment that takes place in the next 10-20 years will have a profound effect
on the climate in the second half of this century and in the next. Our actions now and
over the coming decades could create risks of major disruption to economic and
social activity, on a scale similar to those associated with the great wars and the
economic depression of the first half of the 20th century. And it will be difficult or
impossible to reverse these changes.'