The Telegraph (8 October) has published an article by Dr Bjorn Lomborg, adjunct professor at the Copenhagen Business School and director of the Copenhagen Consensus Centre, which claims that so far global warming has brought more benefits than costs.
Dr Lomborg cites a report by MPs on the House of Commons' Environmental Audit Committee, released today (8 October), which argues that the UK needs strong climate policies, otherwise we will 'face dangerous destabilisation of the global climate'. He says: 'Such scary statements simply underpin expensive policies that offer little benefit.'
He also mentions fracking and says that by highlighting the potentially negative aspects of the process, the potential benefits are being overlooked.
Dr Lomborg says: 'Despite the moderate predictions of the UN Climate Panel, many people, not least the MPs on the Environmental Audit Committee, have tried to spin the issue as threatening Armageddon.
'The reality is that, by 2020, the cost of promised climate policies to the UK economy will be £21 billion annually. The net effect over the century - after spending more than £1.5 trillion - will be to reduce temperature rises by a pitiful 0.005°C.'
He continues: 'Compare this to increased shale gas production, which would generate more than £6 billion annually in tax revenues, and reduce carbon emissions by about 10 times more than the current plan.'
Although global warming is not good, Dr Lomborg says that the world's biggest environmental problem is air pollution caused by using dirty fuels in indoor cooking and heating.
To read the full article go to
http://bit.ly/17RfACx
