THE HEAT IS ON - Tackle global warming in a decade or pay $7 trillion

THE MOST authoritative report on global warming warns that it will cost the world up to £3.68 trillion ($7 trillion) unless it is tackled within a decade. The review by Sir Nicholas Stern, commissioned by the Chancellor of the Exchequer and to be published on Monday, marks a crucial point in the debate by underlining how failure to act would trigger a catastrophic global recession. Unchecked climate change would turn 200 million people into refugees, the largest migration in modern history, as their homes succumbed to drought or flood. Stern also warns that a successor to the Kyoto agreement on cutting greenhouse gas emissions should be signed next year, not by 2010/11 as planned. He forecasts that the world needs to spend 1 per cent of glob al Gross Domestic Product — equivalent to about $350 billion — dealing with climate change now, or face a bill between five and 20 times higher for damage caused by letting it continue. Stern advocates new funds to help Africa and developing nations adapt, but argues the key challenge is from emerging nations such as China and India. Emissions from China are nearly level with the US and likely to increase. Stern also stresses that unilateral action will not be enough — if Britain shut down all its power stations tomorrow, the reduction in global emissions would be cancelled out within 13 months by rising emissions from China.

* Source: http://epaper.hindustantimes.com, dated - Sunday, October 29, 2006. *