Climate policies could lift global GDP by $ 2.6 trillion/year: World Bank

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REUTERS: Global economic output could rise by as much as an additional $ 2.6 trillion a year, or 2.2%, 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%, a year by 2030. If financing and technology investment increased, global GDP could grow by an additional $ 2.6 trillion, or 2.2%, 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% 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 23 September 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.

Surging environmental crime funds conflicts, hurts growth: UN

REUTERS: Surging environmental crime, from illegal logging to elephant poaching, is worth up to $ 213 billion a year and is helping to fund armed conflicts while cutting economic growth, a UN and Interpol report said on Tuesday. The study, released during a UN meeting of environment ministers in Nairobi, called for tougher action to prevent crimes such as illegal logging, fishing, mining, dumping of toxic waste and trade in rare animals and plants. “Many criminal networks are making phenomenal profits from environmental crime,” Achim Steiner, head of the United Nations Environment Program, told Reuters. “It is a financing machine.” An “enormous increase” in environmental crime in recent years is helping to fund militias and insurgents while depriving developing nations of billions of dollars in revenues to help lift citizens from poverty, he said. The study estimated that environmental crime was worth between $ 70 billion and $ 213 billion a year. By comparison, global development aid to poor nations totals $ 135 billion. It estimated, for instance, that illicit trade in charcoal in Africa, where wood is a main source of energy, was worth $ 1.9 billion a year. Islamist al Shabaab insurgents in Somalia made millions of dollars by taxing charcoal at ports and roadblocks. And rising wealth in China and other Asian nations is driving demand for everything from ivory to rhino horn, seen as status symbols by a rapidly growing middle class. The report estimated that about 20,000 to 25,000 elephants were killed in Africa every year, out of a total population of up to about 650,000. Militias in Democratic Republic of Congo and the Central African Republic exploited ivory to raise cash. The report called for stronger environmental laws and enforcement. Among some successes, the report cited a drop in deforestation in Brazil’s Amazon to its lowest rate in 2012 since monitoring began in 1988 because of satellite imaging and targeted police operations.