$300bn cost to stop climate change

2009-08-13
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The top UN climate official claims cutting greenhouse gas emissions to slow global warming and adapting to droughts and rising sea levels will cost around $300 billion (£181bn) a year

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The top UN climate official claims cutting greenhouse gas emissions to slow global warming and adapting to droughts and rising sea levels will cost around $300 billion (£181bn) a year

According to Yvo de Boer UN climate change aecretariat, mitigation of global warming - cutting greenhouse gases while energy production switches to renewables sources such as wind and solar power - will be expensive and developing countries will need lots of funding to stave of the impact of warming such as floods, heatwaves and rising sea levels.

He said: "Over time, according to my own analysis, we are going to need $200 billion (£120bn) a year for mitigation and probably in the order of $100 billion (£60bn) a year for adaptation from 2020 onwards."

He added that although the numbers are rough estimates it illustrates the need for a long-term shift to a green economy.

Mr de Boer said: "It is a phenomenal amount of money but how much of that money is needed at the end of the day is to a large extent dependent on how ambitious the climate change response is."

His predictions come ahead of a UN climate pact which is due to be agreed on at a meeting in Copenhagen in December.

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