Climate Action's Economic Promise: Is Current Effort Enough?

A latest report by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) indicates that more action on climate can boost global economic growth. Well-designed climate policies can boost world GDP by 0.2% by 2040 relative to current policies, as per UNDP and OECD report said. The report released on March 25 indicates that climate policies do not just lower emissions, but also help build efficiency, productivity, and innovation.

The report arrives at a crucial moment when the effects of global warming are becoming more intense and far-reaching. The planet is facing more pressing climate issues, experts warn. Temperatures have increased at an alarming rate in recent years, with unseasonal weather becoming increasingly more prevalent. Scientists now are looking for more information on how human activities have a direct influence on the nature of climate, as without the heightened levels of greenhouse gases, most of the bizarre phenomena that have taken place over the past decades would not have been possible.

IPCC Chair Jim Skea again made it clear that right now, it is more critical than ever in the last three years because climate action has been deplorably lacking. It was the warmest year on record in 2024, and this brought the global mean temperature to 1.5°C above the preindustrial level, reported the Copernicus Climate Change Service. The period from 2015-2024 was also declared the warmest period on record by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO).

While the report by OECD-UNDP highlights the financial rewards of combating climate change, it also conveys the need for immediate and thorough policy reform. The outdated IPCC goal of cutting emissions by 43% by 2030 compared to 2019 is now regarded as ancient history. Paralysis of the previous couple of years implies that reduction must now be more draconian than was even initially forecasted.

The report emphasizes the need for strong, timely climate policies that will be able to spur economic growth as well as ecologic sustainability. It is evident that the climate change issue is not only ecologic but also economic and needs to be addressed in an urgent manner. Since the world is becoming more prone to more frequent and severe weather patterns, the need for governments and businesses to implement policies that will counteract the short-term as well as long-term impacts of global warming cannot be emphasized enough.

Conclusion:To summarize, though economic benefits of addressing climate change do exist, there is also the understanding that the rate of transformation must be enhanced to offset adverse effects of climate change. Worldwide action must happen today in reducing emissions and also in protecting economies, ecosystems, and societies against rising costs of climate change.

Source: Reuters, PTI