Cutting greenhouse gas emissions seen costing $300 billion a year -- UN

[steven johnson]

There's no free lunch?

BONN, Germany (Reuters) - Cutting greenhouse gas emissions to slow global warming and adapting to impacts such as droughts and rising sea levels are likely to cost about $300 billion a year, the top U.N. climate change official said.
Yvo de Boer also told Reuters on Tuesday, on the sidelines of August 10-14 U.N. climate talks in Bonn, that cuts in emissions by 2020 so far promised by rich nations were "miles away" from long-term goals set by a Group of Eight summit last month.
"Over time, according to my own analysis, we are going to need $200 billion a year for mitigation and probably in the order of $100 billion a year for adaptation ... from 2020 onwards," he said.
Mitigation means curbs on greenhouse gases while energy production switches to renewables such as wind and solar power. Developing nations say they will need cash to adapt to impacts of warming such as more floods, heatwaves and rising sea levels.


Climate change fight seen costing $300 billion a year

[kestrel91316]

1. Failure to fight global warming: priceless.

Or perhaps "infinitely costly" works better.

[Fotoware58]

2. Once again...

We could radically cut GHG emissions by cutting wildfire acreage in half. Even with all of our cars and factories, GHG's from wildfires are THE biggest contributor to GHG emissions in this country. Unfortunately, the IPCC disregards those emissions, claiming that those pollutants don't count.

AND, we could save a ton of money at the same time!! AND, we could save precious old growth and endangered species habitat, as well!

BTW, we're currently at 5.6 million acres in the US. That is at least 56 MILLION TONS of toxic GHG's, with many more millions to come before the end of fire season.