For a whacking great message there certainly is, even if the Prime Minister was excused from being asked to spell it out himself. In 2001 President Bush took the United States out of the Kyoto protocol, the ground-breaking climate change treaty, on the premise that its requirement to cut US greenhouse gas emissions would damage the American economy.
The Stern Review tells him bluntly: not cutting your emissions will eventually damage your economy a hell of a lot more. This is not a Greenpeace campaigner talking, remember, not someone who might be suspected of harbouring a secret socialist agenda. This is a former chief economist of one of global capitalism's most revered institutions, the World Bank.
And what Sir Nicholas Stern has done with his report on the economics of climate change is remarkable: he has ripped up the last excuse for inaction. The scientific case to fight climate change has long been overwhelming, the moral case even more so.
The last rational place where an opponent of acting to tackle global warming might take refuge has been the economic argument. No longer. If you oppose action now, you are simply burying your head in the sand. Stern's loudly trumpeted conclusion that the cost of not acting will be five to 20 times the cost of dealing with the problem marks a genuine political turning point. It suddenly delivers a new orthodoxy.
Subscribe
Subscribe to IEMA's newsletters to receive timely articles, expert opinions, event announcements, and much more, directly in your inbox.
Posted on 31st October 2006
Latest Posts
-
IEMA appoints two new Board Directors
- 28th March 2024 -
Impact Assessment Network Volunteers receive International Association of Impact Assessment (IAIA) Regional Award
- 20th March 2024 -
IEMA launches digital campaign to share knowledge and inspire action in sustainability
- 6th March 2024 -
IEMA comments on 2023 being hottest year on record
- 9th January 2024 -
IEMA reacts to COP28 agreement to transition away from fossil fuels
- 13th December 2023 -
New IEMA social sustainability steering group – express your interest in joining
- 24th November 2023