Tony Blair today said that the world was facing "nothing more serious, more urgent, or more demanding of leadership" than climate change and that Britons must be prepared to pay now to avoid future disaster.
"This disaster is not set to happen in some science fiction future many years ahead, but in our lifetime. Unless we act now ... these consequences, disastrous as they are, will be irreversible," he said.
"There is nothing more serious, more urgent, more demanding of leadership - here, of course, but most importantly in the global community."
Mr Blair said the UK would "have to be bolder" in its approach to green issues in order to have international credibility. The cost of doing nothing would be at least five times that of acting now, Mr Blair said.
"Put it another way, for every £1 spent now, we save £5 in the future."
But Mr Blair said international action was needed to tackle the problem "on the scale that is needed".
He said if all Britain's carbon emissions were stopped in one fell swoop, they would be replaced within two years by the increase in Chinese emissions.
"Should we fail to rise to this challenge I don't believe we will be able to explain ourselves to future generations that we have let down," Mr Blair said.
The environment secretary, David Miliband, this afternoon told the Commons that the upcoming climate change bill due to be announced in the Queen's speech would contain "four pillars".
First, he said, the government would enshrine into law Britain's target of reducing carbon dioxide emissions by 60% by 2050 from 1990 levels. It would also establish an independent carbon committee to ensure cuts in carbon use over time.
"Third, we believe that targets need to be accompanied by substantive measures if they are to have credibility.
"This legislation will create enabling powers to put in place new emissions reduction measures," Mr Miliband said.
The final pillar would be to assess what additional reporting and monitoring arrangements were necessary to ensure emission reduction aims were met.
Unveiling his report, former World Bank chief economist Sir Nicholas said the action needed to avert the worst effects of climate change was "manageable", adding: "We can grow and be green."
The global community should aim to stabilise CO2 levels in the atmosphere - currently at 430 parts per million (ppm) - at around 450-550ppm, he said. He warned that continuing with business as usual could mean levels rising to as much as 850 ppm, resulting in global temperatures rising by more than 5C and causing "transformational" changes to human lifestyles.
The last ice age was the result of a dip in global temperatures of around 4C to 5C, he pointed out.
Damage caused by floods, rising sea levels and more violent weather could be the equivalent of losing 5% to 20% of total human consumption a year, he warned.
But Sir Nicholas said the cost of acting now to stabilise atmospheric CO2 at acceptable levels would be around 1% of GDP.
"This is the equivalent of paying 1% more for what we buy," he said. "It is like a one-off increase by 1% in the price index. That is manageable. We can grow and be green."
Also, the scientific and technological advances needed to tackle climate change could produce a boost to the British economy in terms of improved efficiency and the development of valuable new technology, he said.
"Economically speaking, mitigation is a very good deal," said Sir Nicholas. "Business as usual, on the other hand, would eventually derail growth."
Sir Nicholas said that action on global warming must be global, long-term and flexible enough to cope with considerable risks and uncertainties.
Policy should be based on the establishment, by both trade and regulation, of a carbon-pricing system.
And it should involve the promotion of technological solutions to the problem through scientific research and development.
The chancellor, Gordon Brown, who commissioned the review, said climate change was "the world's biggest market failure" and that Britain would become the leading country in pushing for low carbon emissions.
He called for a long-term framework of a worldwide carbon market, leading to "a low-carbon global economy".
He set out proposals for a new European-wide emissions reduction target of 30% by 2020, and at least 60% by 2050 - eventually to be extended worldwide.
"Building a low carbon economy in Britain and across the world means higher productivity from increased energy efficiency, it means new markets, jobs and exports from environmental technologies and products," he said.
"As the international community begins to build the long-term framework that I am describing, as the European trading scheme expands into a global carbon market, a new low-carbon global economy will take shape."
Commenting on the report, Professor Michael Grubb, a professor of climate change and energy policy at Imperial College, London, and Cambridge University said: "The Stern Review finally closes a chasm that has existed for 15 years between the precautionary concerns of scientists, and the cost-benefit views of many economists.
"It finds that most economists' methods have been inadequate for a problem of this scale. Argued with meticulous economic detail, Stern concludes that the problem is indeed massive and urgent - but that it can be solved.
"The most encouraging feature of the Stern review is its conclusion that the problem can be solved by building upon the existing foundations of emissions trading and the Kyoto protocol, combined with strengthened attention to the other pillars of behaviour, efficiency and technological innovation.
Professor Neil Adger, an environmental economist at the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Reseach, said: "The economics of Nicholas Stern is not the 'dismal science' of standard economics.
"The review shows with clarity and vision how climate change can be tackled head on by governments using clear goals and sustained investment, and by harnessing ingenuity and technology.
"But it goes further to demonstrate, using the economic language loved by exchequers, that climate change is a moral policy issue where the countries of the world are completely interdependent but with different responsibilities for action."
Source:
The Guardian
