Environmental and Energy Study Institute

Sir Nicholas Stern addresses the audience.

On September 21, 2007, the Environmental and Energy Study Institute (EESI) held a Congressional briefing with Sir Nicholas Stern a year after the release of the landmark "Stern Review on the Economics of Climate Change." The Stern Review represented a key milestone in our understanding of the urgent need to take action and the associated costs of tackling climate change. The headline message that the cost of action would be far less than the cost of inaction was a catalyst for many governments to increase their efforts in the fight against global warming.

In the run up to the next UN meeting on climate change in Bali (December 2007), there are a number of complementary processes taking place, including the UN Secretary-General's meeting in New York on September 24 and the US Meeting of Major Economies on Energy Security and Climate Change in Washington on September 27-28. How will the findings of the Stern Review affect these meetings? Will the policy recommendations recommended by the Review be considered as part of the final deal? Sir Nicholas Stern spoke about these issues, which was followed by a Q&A session with the audience.

Briefing Speaker:

• Sir Nicholas Stern, Professor of Economics, London School of Economics Asia Research Centre and author of the “Stern Review on the Economics of Climate Change”

Audio Recording of Briefing and Q&A

Background
The Stern Review was commissioned by Gordon Brown, formerly Chancellor of the Exchequer and now the British Prime Minister. The Stern Review's principal conclusion was that tackling climate change is a pro-growth strategy. It found that the earlier effective action is taken, the less costly it will be. The Stern Review surprised many policymakers in terms of describing the relatively small cost of action versus the significant costs of inaction, i.e. stabilizing greenhouse gases in the atmosphere will cost about one per cent of annual global output by 2050. If no action is taken, climate change will reduce global consumption per head by between five and 20 percent. In addition, markets for low-carbon energy products are likely to be worth at least $505 billion per year by 2050.