UN Panel Says That Costs to Fight Climate Change Still "Relatively Modest"....For Now

Just a little over a week before Earth Day, the United Nations expert panel on climate change said that the costs for trying to keep global warming at bay would be "relatively modest":

:"The longer we delay the higher would be the cost," IPCC chairman Rajendra Pachauri told The Associated Press after the panel's weeklong session in Berlin. "But despite that, the point I'm making is that even now, the cost is not something that's going to bring about a major disruption of economic systems. It's well within our reach."

According to Karl Ritter of The Associated Press, who wrote the article "Cost of fighting warming 'modest,' says UN panel" that this blog entry was inspired by:

"The IPCC, an international body assessing climate science, projected that shifting the energy system from fossil fuels to zero- or low-carbon sources including wind and solar power would reduce consumption growth by about 0.06 percentage points per year, adding that that didn't take into account the economic benefits of reduced climate change. "The loss in consumption is relatively modest," Pachauri said. "

They tried not to point fingers at any one country, and also did not make clear who would bear the brunt of higher costs for fighting climate change.

US Secretary of State John Kerry welcomed the report, and claimed that this was an opportunity:

"So many of the technologies that will help us fight climate change are far cheaper, more readily available, and better performing than they were when the last IPCC assessment was released less than a decade ago," Kerry said.

Still, the message was clear: action needs to be taken now, rather than later. From an economic standpoint, it would make much more sense to try and take care of the problem now, to the extent possible, rather than later, if the problem is allowed to worsen.

"The IPCC is telling us in no uncertain terms that we are running out of time — but not out of solutions — if we are to avoid the worst effects of climate change," said Frances Beinecke, president of the Natural Resources Defense Council, a Washington-based environmental group. "That requires decisive actions to curb carbon pollution — and an all-out race to embrace renewable sources of energy. History is calling."


Here is the link to the article that got me on this topic for this blog entry:

"Cost of fighting warming 'modest,' says UN panel" by Karl Ritter of the Associated Press, April 13, 2014:

http://news.yahoo.com/cost-fighting-warming-modest-says-un-panel-153929628--finance.html