14 DAY TRIAL // A new report focusing on the economic impact of phenomena such as climate change and global warming states that for the time being as much as $1 tr. is lost on a yearly basis as a result of pollution and its related consequences.
According to DARA, the NGO that looked into this issue, said sum of money basically translates into about 1.6% of the global gross domestic product (GDP), and things are to only get worse provided that appropriate measures to combat rising temperatures and sea levels are not soon set in place.
More precisely, should things continue to unfold in this manner, the NGO warns that the costs of climate change could amount to 3.6 percent of global GDP as early as the year 2030.
Business Green informs us that countries that are only now developing are more than likely to average a 11% loss of their GDP, primarily as a result of ever less productive agricultural practices.
It is not difficult to figure out that this will impair their predicted and desired economic and social development, and that this will translate in their needing increased financial support from more developed nations.
However, the latter will also have their economic security “slightly” turned topsy-turvy as a result of climate change.
Preliminary estimates show that the US is to lose 2% of its GDP to global warming, whereas India will be left without 5% of its GDP.
“1.3 billion people are still fighting their way out of the most extreme forms of poverty while major economies are today fighting their way out of crippling financial and economic crises. We simply cannot afford to part with more growth,” explained José María Figueres, former President of Costa Rica.
Furthermore, “With the investment required to solve climate change already far below the estimated costs of inaction, no doubt remains as to the path worth taking.”
Just for the record, it seems that climate change will also bring forth ever more disturbing human costs in the years to come.
Thus, if present global warming and pollution-related deaths revolve around five million individuals per year, these figures stand to increase in the not so distant future.