Study doubts UN calculation of climate change costs
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The global cost of adapting to the effects of climate change will be at least two or three times higher than estimated by the UNFCCC, a new report states.
A new study seriously doubts UN calculations of the global cost of adapting to climate change, Reuters reports.
According to the study, conducted jointly by the International Institute for Environment and Development and the Grantham Institute for Climate Change at Imperial College London, the cost will be at least two or three times higher than estimated by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).
"Just looking in depth at the sectors the UNFCCC did study, we estimate adaptation costs to be two to three times higher, and when you include the sectors the UNFCCC left out the true cost is probably much greater," says Martin Parry, lead author of the report, according to Reuters.
The UNFCCC puts the global costs of adaptation, through measures such as growing drought-resistant crops and limiting the spread of diseases, at $40 billion to $170 billion a year until 2030. The broad range is due to a large degree of uncertainty as to some of the costs.
The estimate has been used at preliminary UN climate negotiations this year ahead of this December’s UN climate change conference in Copenhagen, whose goal is a new international agreement on how to tackle global warming.
"If governments are working with the wrong numbers, we could end up with a false deal that fails to cover the costs of adaptation to climate change," says Camilla Toulmin, director of the International Institute for Environment and Development.
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