Early Wednesday afternoon, Secretary of State John Kerry prepared to deliver his final address as America\u2019s top diplomat to the United Nations\u2019 climate conference in Marrakech. Meanwhile, in a tent next door, the United Nations Development Programme released a report that anticipated many of the themes that would mark Kerry\u2019s speech\u2014chief among them that committing to ambitious climate action is a crucial economic decision.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn the long term, carbon-intensive energy is actually today, right now, one of the costliest and most foolhardy investments any nation can possibly make,\u201d\u00a0Kerry said. \u201cEveryone needs to make smarter choices\u2014with the long game, not the short game, in mind.\u201d<\/p>\n
According to the UNDP report, the difference in economic terms between taking ambitious climate actions and proceeding with current emissions promises can be counted in the trillions. The report, commissioned by a coalition of developing nations called the Climate Vulnerable Forum, calculates that if the world acts to halt warming at 1.5 degrees Celcius, then by mid-century the global GDP would be 10 percent\u2014or $12 trillion\u2014higher than if countries proceed with their current policies.<\/p>\n
The 1.5-degree path would create approximately double the number of jobs by 2050 than current policies, because of the quicker growth of low-emission power generation, which has the highest employment ratio per watt of energy produced.<\/p>\n
The Low Carbon Monitor Report relies on data from Climate Analytics, which considered both the economic boost that investment in clean energy would bring and the losses caused by climate-related damages if temperatures were left to exceed 1.5 degrees.<\/p>\n
Because economic losses due to future warming are difficult to predict, Climate Analytics only considered the direct effects of temperature rise\u00a0and not climate-related losses like those caused by sea level rise or extreme flooding events. So, even this $12 trillion could be a huge underestimation, once you start to consider the economic value of, say, entire island nations that could likely be submerged by 2050.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Since 2009, the world\u2019s most vulnerable nations have insisted on limiting warming to 1.5 degrees as a matter of survival. To allow the world to warm 2 degrees, they argue, is an existential risk to low-lying islands and other regions that are suffering the worst of flooding, droughts, crop loss, and desertification. In the final draft of the Paris Agreement, parties agreed to limit warming to \u201cwell below 2\u00b0C\u201d and to strive to hold temperatures below a 1.5-degree increase. <\/em><\/p>\n What\u2019s the difference? In terms of physical impacts, the UNDP report presents some new scientific analyses. For instance, keeping warming to 1.5 degrees would reduce the length of heat waves experienced in tropical regions each year by a full month by mid-century. Similarly, it would limit the reduction of crop yields by more than 10-percent when compared to 2 degrees of warming.<\/p>\n Though the 1.5-degree goal is often portrayed as too expensive, or a limit to growth, this Low Carbon Monitor Report turns that equation on its ear. \u201cIt\u2019s the exact opposite,\u201d said Matthew McKinnon of the UNDP. \u201cClimate change is so threatening to growth that not tackling it has become one of the greatest development liabilities we face.\u201d<\/p>\n It was a sentiment Kerry would echo minutes later:<\/p>\n The Low Carbon Monitor Report doesn\u2019t only examine the harmful impacts that are avoided, but also the positive gains from investments in clean energy. His Excellency Kare Bebassa of Ethiopia, as the country is the current Chair of the Climate Vulnerable Forum, said that the aggressive emissions reductions were necessary for his country\u2019s survival, but added that \u201cwe will also thrive working for 1.5.\u201d Bebassa went on, \u201cAs developing nations, we cannot turn our backs on opportunities for creating jobs, protecting our growth, improving health, and increasing access to energy.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Again, a theme Kerry would soon run with: \u201cInvesting in clean energy simply makes good economic sense,\u201d he said. \u201cYou can make money, you can do good, and you can do well\u2014all at the same time.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Early Wednesday afternoon, Secretary of State John Kerry prepared to deliver his final address as America\u2019s top diplomat to the United Nations\u2019 climate conference in Marrakech. Meanwhile, in a tent next door, the United Nations Development Programme released a report that anticipated many of the themes that would mark Kerry\u2019s speech\u2014chief among them that committing…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1365","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1365","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1365"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1365\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1365"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1365"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1365"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n