Global Commission launches ‘New Climate Economy’ project

A project examining how stronger economic performance can be supported by good climate policy has launched today, by the Global Commission on the Economy and Climate.


Set up by the Global Commission on the Economy and Climate, which also officially launched today, the project, called the New Climate Economy, aims to contribute to the global debate about economic policy, and to inform government, business and investment decisions.

Commenting on the launch, chair of the Global Commission, former President of Mexico Felipe Calderón. said: “Climate impacts are rising and the evidence of warming is increasingly clear, but most economic analysis still does not properly factor in the increasing risks of climate change or the potential benefits of acting on it.

“We need urgently to identify how we can achieve economic growth and job creation while also reducing emissions and tackling climate change,” he added.

The project will engage directly with key decision makers in finance ministries and with major businesses and investors, including leading economic organisations, such as the World Bank and International Monetary Fund.

In addition to inviting contributions from a wide variety of academic, business and other institutions, it will publish a comprehensive analysis in September 2014, a year before the culmination of negotiations for a new international climate agreement in Paris in 2015.

The Commission will then take its findings and recommendations directly to heads of government, finance and economic ministers, business leaders and investors throughout the world.

Vice-chair of the Commission and author of the 2006 Stern Review Lord Nicholas Stern said: “At a time when governments throughout the world are struggling to boost growth, increase access to energy, and improve food security, it is essential that the full costs and benefits of climate policies are more clearly understood”.

“It cannot be a case of either achieving growth or tackling global warming. It must be both,” he added.

Leigh Stringer

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