Experts say more funds needed to tackle climate change

I / London August 29, 2009, 11:33 IST

British scientists have warned that UN negotiations aimed at tackling climate change are based on substantial underestimates of what it will cost to adapt to its impacts and were produced too quickly without including key sectors like energy, manufacturing and ecosystems. 

The real costs of adaptation to climate change are likely to be two to three times greater than the $40-170 billion estimate made by the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), the researchers say.     

In a study published by the International Institute for Environment and Development and the Grantham Institute for Climate Change, they add that costs will be even more when the full range of climate impacts on human activities is considered.     

 

The report's authors, including Pam Berry from the Environmental Change Institute at Oxford University, say that the UNFCCC's estimated annual global cost of adapting to climate change — which is $40-170 billion or the cost of about three Olympic Games per year — was produced too quickly and did not include key sectors such as energy, manufacturing, retailing, mining, tourism and ecosystems.

Berry led the work on estimating the cost of protecting ecosystems and the services they can provide for human society, which were excluded from the UNFCCC estimates. She found that this is an important source of under-estimation, and will cost over $350 billion, including both protected and non-protected areas.