Adapting to climate change will cost a lot more than thought

(Eco Business, 24 May 2016) The UN Environment Programme has increased by 4-5 times its estimate of how much money the world will need to adapt to climate change effects.

The cost of adapting to a changing climate will be 4-5 times higher than what was estimated two years ago, says a new report by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). “The costs of adaptation could range from USD140 billion to USD300 billion by 2030, and between USD280 billion and USD500 billion by 2050,” the report says.

As India faces more intense and more frequent heat waves, the report says, “Annual costs associated with additional demand for cooling (in India) could range between USD25 billion and USD100 billion by mid-century, for low- and high-warming scenarios, respectively.” Recent studies have linked increasing heat waves in India to climate change.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in its fifth assessment report released in 2014 and 2015 had estimated that the costs of adaptation would be between USD70 billion and USD100 billion by 2030. However, the IPCC had warned that it had “low confidence” in its estimate due to “methodological challenges and data shortcomings”.

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Eco Business, 24 May 2016: Adapting to climate change will cost a lot more than thought