Climate Policies Could Lift Global GDP by $2.6 Trillion/Year: World Bank

Global economic output could rise by as much as an additional $2.6 trillion a year, or 2.2 per cent, by 2030 if government policies improve energy efficiency, waste management and public transport, according to a World Bank report released on Tuesday.

The report, produced with philanthropic group ClimateWorks Foundation, analysed the benefits of ambitious policies to cut emissions from transport, industrial and building sectors as well as from waste and cooking fuels in Brazil, China, India, Mexico, the United States and the European Union.

It found a shift to low-carbon transport and improved energy efficiency in factories, buildings and appliances could increase global growth in gross domestic product (GDP) by an extra $1.8 trillion, or 1.5 per cent, a year by 2030.

If financing and technology investment increased, global GDP could grow by an additional $2.6 trillion, or 2.2 per cent, a year by 2030, the World Bank said.

Climate policies could also avert at least 94,000 premature deaths a year from pollution-related diseases by 2030, improve crop productivity and prevent around 8.5 billion metric tons of greenhouse gases being emitted - the same as taking around 2 billion cars off the road.

For example, if China deployed 70 million low-carbon cook stoves, it could avoid around 1 million premature deaths from pollution and reap almost $11 billion in economic benefits, the report showed.

"These interventions should seem like no-brainers to governments around the world," World Bank Group President Jim Yong Kim told reporters on a conference call.

"The report removes another false barrier, another false argument not to take action against climate change," he added.

In March, a report by a UN panel of scientists projected that the effects of global warming could cut global economic output by between 0.2 and 2.0 per cent a year by damaging human health, disrupting water supplies and raising sea levels.

However, many countries believe this is an underestimate because it excludes risks of catastrophic changes, such as a Greenland ice melt of the collapse of coral reefs which could cause massive economic losses.

To speed up action on climate change, United Nations' Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has invited heads of state, governments, businesses and civil society to a climate summit on September 23 in New York.

The summit is aiming to spur progress towards getting a deal by the end of 2015 which binds all nations to cut greenhouse gas emissions.

Talks on deal are making slow progress. An interim UN meeting in Bonn, Germany, earlier this month only managed to take tentative steps towards an agreement.

Copyright: thomson Reuters 2014