11th October 2023
Climate change and biodiversity loss do not occur without imposing a financial cost on the world. Based on figures from the last twenty years the cost is currently in the region of £13 million per day (1). This calculation doesn’t fully include losses arising from poor or marginalised communities because the such data is not well or fully recorded. Nor does the data reflect the cost of reduced harvests – crops, livestock, fish – as again such data is not always available. What these costs do reflect is the financial loss of buildings, land and people’s lives through storms, floods, heatwaves and droughts.
The LSE reported last year that for the UK that “Under current policies, the total cost of climate change damages to the UK are projected to increase from 1.1% of GDP at present to 3.3% by 2050”. (2)
In the light of these sums, the argument that green investment, to reduce or to adapt to the climate crisis, is too expensive is nonsensical.
(2) https://www.lse.ac.uk/granthaminstitute/publication/what-will-climate-change-cost-the-uk/
The Green Tau 