To close the month my Recommended Read for this month is the Stern Review: The Economics of Climate Change.
The Report was released for the Government of the United Kingdom on 🗓 30 October 2006 by Economist Nicholas Stern.
The Stern Review was a heavyweight in all sense of the words. The 700-page Review loaded with data, statistics and calculations proved to be a force to be reckoned with. Critics however still attempted to question its accuracy given the speed of it’s release.
Fast forward 17 years to the present day…we are still on edge of pacing forward with action to combat climate change.
To refresh ourselves with the guidance of the Review here’s some salient points:
The Stern Review stands as a profound watershed literary piece coming from the UK.
The scientific evidence summmised the risks of serious irreversible consequences from climate change.
Climate change threatens basic elements of life for people around the world—access to water, food production, health, and use of land and the environment.
The impacts of climate change are not evenly distributed—the poorest countries and people will suffer earliest and most.
The review supported a domino effect of legitimate action nationally and regionally. The enactment of the Climate Change Act 2008 in the UK built the pursuit of reducing the impact of climate change into the UK constitution.
A key take-away from the Review is…the longer we leave it, the harder and more expensive it will get. It makes economic sense to take action.
There are significant benefits of strong, early action on climate change – benefits outway costs.
The transition to a low-carbon economy will bring challenges for competitiveness but also opportunities for growth.
Policies to support the development of a range of low-carbon and high-efficiency technologies are required urgently.
