Oil bigger threat than climate change in 10 years

LONDON (Reuters) – Rising oil prices are a bigger threat to the world economy than climate change in the next 10 years – that was the surprising verdict of company executives from carbon trading, fuel cell, oil exploration and solar power firms who attended the Reuters Smaller Companies Forum.

But climate change is likely to have a greater effect on the global economy over a 50-year timespan, according to those executives from old and new energy companies.
“In a short-term scenario it is hard to say climate change is going to be a differentiating factor,” said Jack MacDonald, finance director of carbon cutting project developer EcoSecurities (ECO.L: Quote, Profile, Research).

“If oil prices quadruple it is probably more of a challenge to the economy than climate change,” he said.

But he added high oil prices would force businesses to tackle climate change earlier, as it is a greater problem in the longer term.

Peter Bance, chief executive of fuel cell domestic boiler maker Ceres Power (CWR.L: Quote, Profile, Research), said the world can cope with both pressures in the short term, but there were signs that natural catastrophes were already forcing a radical rethink.

“Hurricane Katrina woke people in the U.S. up in a very big way, even though it was not necessarily 100 percent linked to climate change,” he said.

“Droughts and flooding are a much bigger long-term driver (of people’s behaviour) than the oil price,” he added.

Reuters UK