Costs of climate change

The financial cost of adapting to climate change will be discussed by finance ministers at a major United Nations conference on climate change starting in Bali next week (3 December).

In addition to the official UN agenda, finance ministers from more than 20 developed and developing countries will be meeting on 8-9 December to discuss the economic aspects of climate change and different policy options for financing clean development. A meeting of trade ministers on 10-11 December will consider how to liberalise trade in environmental goods and services. But no significant agreements are expected from either meeting.

A recent report from the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change found that the world would have to spend 0.3-0.5% of gross domestic pro-duct and 1.1-1.7% of global investment by 2030 to address climate change.

A report on trade and climate change published on Wednesday (28 November) by Alain Lipietz, a French Green MEP, calls for consumer products to be labelled with their greenhouse-gas emissions and for punitive tariffs to be levied against countries that fail to ratify a successor to the Kyoto Protocol on climate change.

The financial cost of adapting to climate change will be discussed by finance ministers at a major United Nations conference on climate change starting in Bali next week (3 December).