So the latest in the series of reports was released today. Here’s the cost of stabilising emissions:

For many delegates, the strongest message was that reaching the lowest
targets could be done at less than 3 percent of the global gross
domestic product by 2030 _ or 0.12 annually.

Well, yes, that is indeed an extremely affordable figure. An unlikely one I would have thought too (yes, yes, I know, I’m just a blogger, so what I think isn’t quite up there with the views of 2,500 scientists. Of whom how many were economists?…which I am also note, let me further note.)

The Washington Post report then becomes a little garbled.

That compares favorably to global economic growth that every year has
averaged almost 3 percent since 2000. The damage from unabated climate
change, meanwhile, might eventually cost the global economy between 5
percent and 20 percent of GDP every year, according to a British
government report last year.

You see, it’s rather bad form to mix and match numbers like that. If we’re going to use the figures from the Stern Review (5-20% ) then we really rather need to use the other figures as well…costs of 1% of GDP annually to avoid it.

OK, at the present moment I simply cannot see how the changes necessary will cost that very small sum of money. Off to read the report to see what I can see.