The Stern Warning
- October 31st, 2006
- Posted by 7thmin
A call for nations to act immediately against global warming, from the British government, has met a positive early response from its European partners.
Sir Nicholas Stern, former Chief Economist with the World Bank, released his report on the weekend, following it up at a media conference on Monday (30.10.06) with the Prime Minister, Tony Blair, who gave his government’s full endorsement.
The report predicts disastrous consequences within the half Century, on the scale of the Great Depression of the 1930s – from continued rises in temperature, drought, melting of ice, and rises in sea levels.
It urges that enormous costs be accepted now, to contain the expected problems, in order to stave off far greater loses and expenses, trillions of dollars, if sweeping actions are not taken.
A spokesperson for the European Commission said Sir Nicholas Stern had made a clear call to action; it was a valuable “contribution”, demonstrating that the threat from climate change could not be put in the “too-difficult” pile.
The European Union itself was adopting a carbon trading scheme that would apply to 40% of carbon emissions in its area; ahead of a major strategic initiative on the environment to be promulgated in January.
A focus had to be made on a successor strategy to the Kyoto agreement on the environment, due to expire in 2012.