Climate secured for $15 per person

Wednesday, 06 May 2009 08:20

According to a new study by McKinsey & Company, the earth's climate could be secured for only $100 billion – or about 15 dollars per citizen in the world.

Combating climate change could be a lot more affordable, or even lucrative, than previously thought, reports cop15.dk , the website of the hosts of the upcoming UN Copenhagen climate summit.

According to a new study made by consultants McKinsey & Company on behalf of the ClimateWorks Foundation in California, a transition to a global green economy could be done for only 0.02 percent of the global GNP – $100 billion (75 billion euro), or about 15 dollars per world citizen.

This is far more optimistic than stated by the IPCC and in the Stern report, which assessed the economic cost to be about one percent of the global GNP.

Jeremy Oppenheim, global director of McKinsey & Company’s Climate Change Special Initiative, says the difference is due to the calculation of large, positive side effects from climate investments.

“We have to move very aggressively on our investments in new energy forms. And we can see from the experience with the Danish expansion in wind power that the more turbines that are ordered and manufactured, the cheaper the electricity they supply gets. The larger the scale of the investments, the lower a cost can we expect,” he says, according to the weekly newsletter of the independent Scandinavian think tank Mandag Morgen ("Monday Morning").

If all countries and regions invested in new climate technologies as recommended by McKinsey, global carbon emissions could be reduced by 35-40 percent compared to 1990 levels. Much of that could be accomplished by using energy more efficiently than today, for instance by replacing light bulbs and insulating. Energy saving initiatives alone could cut emissions by 10 gigatons annually, according to the McKinsey report.

Time, however, is crucial. If the politicians hesitate just a few years with the necessary investments it will be too late to prevent major climate disasters, and the cost will grow to quite a different order of magnitude, the report states.

The McKinsey study will be included in a comprehensive report to be presented at the World Business Summit on Climate Change in  Copenhagen later this month.

(Source: cop15.dk, Mandag morgen)