False Economies

Damian Carrington suggests the cost of dealing with climate change, although enormous, is actually currently 'a bargain' (https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/aug/11/climate-action-bargain-britain-net-zero). The Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) put the cost of the UK hitting net zero by 2050 at £1.4tn. The usual suspects describe this as an 'eye-watering' amount, suggesting that incurring the cost amounts to 'economic suicide'. Carrington points out that the £1.4tn is only one side of the balance sheet. Reaching carbon zero would, he says, produce huge cost savings. It would also avoid the horrendous costs of countering climate change, unleashed by rampant global heating. The main thing would be to ensure that the costs are fairly distributed, enabling poorer folk to make the needed transitions. Without that, no meaningful action would be achieved. The OBR reckon that, delaying decisive climate action by a decade, could double the cost to government. It would also make the hosts of COP26, look like short-sighted, cheapskates. Carrington is clearly worried, however, that the people arguing we cannot afford to spend the money to counter climate change, will be listened to.