Climate change costs
New study underlines positive economic effects of tackling climate change
Researchers at the Global Development and Environment Institute at Tufts University (United States) say that trillions of dollars of damage could be avoided by the end of the century if resolute action is taken now to reduce global warming.
The Tufts study, "Climate change - the costs of inaction", says possible benefits of global warming such as increased agricultural yields will quickly be offset by the costs of extreme weather events - droughts, floods, powerful storms, heat waves.
Based on the assumption that average global temperatures would rise by 4°C above pre-industrial levels by 2100, the researchers predict that annual economic damages could reach US $ 20 trillion by 2100, or "6 to 8% of global economic output at that time".
In comparison, they say limiting the temperature increase to 2°C would eliminate more than half of these predicted damages. Citing an estimate by the German Institute for Economic Research (DIW), they say that, by 2100, this would result in $12 trillion worth of avoided annual damages - something that would be achieved by spending "only" $3 trillion per year on climate protection.
For the researchers, the economic implication is that the cost of reducing the damage is worth more than the cost of reducing emissions of global warming gases.
For the full study:
"Climate change - the costs of inaction"
