$1,000,000,000,000: the cost of capping greenhouse gas

[cal04]

$1,000,000,000,000: the cost of capping greenhouse gas emissions
The cost of curbing the soaring emissions of harmful gases that are blamed for causing global warming has been estimated at $1 trillion by a major study of the cost of climate change.

The volume of emissions of the gases that cause global warming will double by 2050 unless rich countries agree to take significant policy steps to cut energy use, it shows.

The report, by Pricewaterhouse Coopers, lays bare the potential damage to the environment of the industrial revolution in China and India. It puts a price of $1 trillion (£526bn) on the cost of sorting out the problem spread over the next generation. The bill is equivalent to a year's output of the economy of Canada, and less than half of the total stock of debt that has been built up by Britain's households. But it is less than the cost in terms of environmental catastrophe and loss of life that scientists fear will happen as temperatures and sea levels rise. "It is implicit from our findings that a trillion dollars certainly is a cost worth incurring," said John Hawksworth, the chief economist at PwC and author of the report.

Turbo-charged growth in emerging economies is helping to drag billions of people out of poverty across Asia, Latin America and eastern Europe.

http://news.independent.co.uk/environment/article1772355.ece

[brokensymmetry]

1. I suspect the number is too optimistic.

Probably a lot too optimistic.

When you consider that half of the electricity in the
US comes from coal...and the set-up of our transportation
system...I suspect the real cost would be 100 times
greater.

[mom cat]

2. Still a lot cheaper than a new planet.

[Ready4Change]

3. Ok, now what is the cost of NOT capping GHG.

Droughts, crop destructions, ecological devestation, coastline cities flooded in a way that makes NOLA look like a cakewalk, and, as it all continues, massive human dieoffs.

Whats the cost on that?