Stern review author paints bleaker picture on climate change

LONDON (AFP) – Nicholas Stern, the author of a key climate change report, said in an interview published Thursday that he and his team “underestimated” the risks of global warming.

Speaking to the Financial Times, former World Bank chief economist Stern also defended the conclusions in his 2006 report, which has been criticised by some economists and climate change sceptics, including former British finance minister Lord Nigel Lawson.


Stern’s 700-page report estimated the effects of climate change at up to a fifth of worldwide gross domestic product if nothing was done.

“We underestimated the risks … we underestimated the damage associated with the temperature increases … and we underestimated the probability of temperature increases,” he told the business daily.

“The damage risks are bigger than I would have argued … We can’t be precise about what it would be like but you can say it would be a transformation.”

AFP