25 November 2006

Further revelations on the potentially devastating impact of climate change were recently revealed in the UK Government’s Stern Review.

Adding to the scientific, environmental and moral imperatives to address climate change, the report added a compelling economic case to fight hard to keep climate change within 2°C average global temperature rise. It says that ignoring climate change could dampen the global economy by 5 to 20% each year within a decade, costing the world up to $7 trillion. In contrast, tackling climate change now would cost about 1% of global GDP each year - £200 billion, which is roughly what the world spends annually on advertising.

The report, however, warns that the chance to avoid the worst effects of climate change ‘is already almost out of reach’. Tony Blair and Gordon Brown launched the report and said the UK would take leadership in the international response to tackle climate change. They propose a new EU target to reduce emissions 30%t by 2020 and at least 60% by 2050. They also want the next Kyoto agreement to be largely agreed next year or in 2008, ahead of the 2012 expiry of the current agreement and target.

Some of the starkest facts and projections contained within the 700-page report were:

40% of the world’s species face extinction if temperature rise by more than 2°C
4 million square kilometres of land, home to 5% of the world’s people, are threatened by floods from melting glaciers
200 million people are at risk from losing their homes to flood or drought by 2050
Four billion people may suffer water shortages at a temperature rise of 2°C
200 million more people will be exposed to hunger by a 2°C temperature rise, increasing to 550 million more at 3°C
Crop yields across African and the Middle East will fall by 35% with a 3°C rise

Tony Blair said the Stern Review showed the scientific evidence of global warming was ‘overwhelming’ and its consequences ‘disastrous’, and warned that the world cannot afford to wait before tackling climate change. “Without radical measures to reduce carbon emissions within the next 10 to 15 years, there is compelling evidence to suggest we might lose the chance to control temperature rises.”

In the US, the White House declined to endorse the report’s findings, while the US energy industry slammed the report as owing more to science fiction than to reality. OPEC’s Secretary-General Mohammed Barkindo said that the report has no basis in either science or economics.

Further proof, if it were needed, that personal action on climate change is now more important than ever. For more information, log on to www.rspb.org.uk/climate.