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Stern Review Report Part2

Stern Review Report Part2

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STERN REVIEW: The Economics of Climate Change
Part II
Impacts of Climate Change on Growth and Development

Part II considers how climate change will affect people\u2019s lives, the environment and the prospects for growth and development in different parts of the world. All three dimensions are fundamental to understanding how climate change will affect our future.

These effects will not be felt evenly across the globe. Although some parts of the world would benefit from modest rises in temperature, at higher temperature increases, most countries will suffer heavily and global growth will be affected adversely. For some of the poorest countries there is a real risk of being pushed into a downwards spiral of increasing vulnerability and poverty.

Average global temperature increases of only 1-2\u00b0C (above pre-industrial levels) could commit 15-40 percent of species to extinction. As temperatures rise above 2- 3\u00b0C, as will very probably happen in the latter part of this century, so the risk of abrupt and large-scale damage increases, and the costs associated with climate change \u2013 across the three dimensions of mortality, ecosystems and income \u2013 are likely to rise more steeply. In mathematical terms, the global damage function is convex.

No region would be left untouched by changes of this magnitude, though developing countries would be affected especially adversely. This applies particularly to the poorest people within the large populations of both sub-Saharan Africa, and South Asia. By 2100, in South Asia and Sub Saharan Africa, up to 145 - 220 million additional people could fall below the $2-a-day poverty line, and every year an additional 165,000 - 250,000 children could die compared with a world without climate change.

Modelling work undertaken by the Review suggests that the risks and costs of climate change over the next two centuries could be equivalent to an average reduction in global per capita consumption of at least 5%, now and forever. The estimated damages would be much higher if non-market impacts, the possibility of greater climate sensitivity, and distributional issues were taken into account.

Part II is structured as follows:
\ue006\ue000Chapter 3 begins by exploring how climate change will affect people around the
world, including the potential implications for access to food, water stress, health
and well being, and the environment.
\ue006\ue000Chapter 4 focuses on the implications for developed countries. Some regions will
benefit from temperature rises of up to 1 to 2\u00b0C, but the balance of impacts will
become increasingly negative as temperature rises.
\ue006\ue000Chapter 5 considers the implications of climate change for developing countries.

It explains why developing countries are so vulnerable to climate change \u2013 a volatile mix of geographic location, existing vulnerability and, linked to this, limited ability to deal with the pressures that climate change will create.

\ue006\ue000Chapter 6 aims to pull together the existing modelling work that has been done to
estimate the monetary costs of climate change, and also sets out the detail of
modelling work undertaken by the Review.
Part II: The Impacts of Climate Change on Growth and Development
3 How Climate Change Will Affect People Around The World
Key Messages
Climate change threatens the basic elements of life for people around the world \u2013 access to water,
food, health, and use of land and the environment. On current trends, average global temperatures
could rise by 2 - 3\u00b0C within the next fifty years or so,1 leading to many severe impacts, often mediated by
water, including more frequent droughts and floods (Table 3.1).
Melting glaciers will increase flood risk during the wet season and strongly reduce dry-season
water supplies to one-sixth of the world\u2019s population, predominantly in the Indian sub-continent,
parts of China, and the Andes in South America.
Declining crop yields, especially in Africa, are likely to leave hundreds of millions without the

ability to produce or purchase sufficient food - particularly if the carbon fertilisation effect is weaker than previously thought, as some recent studies suggest. At mid to high latitudes, crop yields may increase for moderate temperature rises (2 \u2013 3\u00b0C), but then decline with greater amounts of warming.

Ocean acidification, a direct result of rising carbon dioxide levels, will have major effects on
marine ecosystems, with possible adverse consequences on fish stocks.
Rising sea levels will result in tens to hundreds of millions more people flooded each year with a

warming of 3 or 4\u00b0C. There will be serious risks and increasing pressures for coastal protection in South East Asia (Bangladesh and Vietnam), small islands in the Caribbean and the Pacific, and large coastal cities, such as Tokyo, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Mumbai, Calcutta, Karachi, Buenos Aires, St Petersburg, New York, Miami and London.


Climate change will increase worldwide deaths from malnutrition and heat stress. Vector-borne diseases such as malaria and dengue fever could become more widespread if effective control measures are not in place. In higher latitudes, cold-related deaths will decrease.

By the middle of the century, 200 million more people may becomepermanently displaced due
to rising sea levels, heavier floods, and more intense droughts, according to one estimate.

around 15 \u2013 40% of species face extinction with 2\u00b0C of warming. Strong drying over the Amazon, as predicted by some climate models, would result in dieback of the forest with the highest biodiversity on the planet.

The consequences of climate change will become disproportionately more damaging with
increased warming. Higher temperatures will increase the chance of triggering abrupt and large-scale
changes that lead to regional disruption, migration and conflict.

Warming may inducesudden shifts in regional weather patterns like the monsoons or the El Ni\u00f1o. Such changes would have severe consequences for water availability and flooding in tropical regions and threaten the livelihoods of billions.

Melting or collapse of ice sheetswould raise sea levels and eventually threaten at least 4
million Km2 of land, which today is home to 5%of the world\u2019s population.
1 All changes in global mean temperature are expressed relative to pre-industrial levels (1750 - 1850). A temperature rise of 1\u00b0C
represents the range 0.5 \u2013 1.5\u00b0C, a temperature rise of 2\u00b0C represents the range 1.5 \u2013 2.5\u00b0C etc.
STERN REVIEW: The Economics of Climate Change
Part II: The Impacts of Climate Change on Growth and Development
Table 3.1 Highlights of possible climate impacts discussed in this chapter
rise (\u00b0C)
Abrupt and Large-
Scale Impacts

Small glaciers in the
Andes disappear
threatening water
supplies for 50
million people

Modest increases in
cereal yields in
temperate regions

At least 300,000
people each year
die from climate-
related diseases
diarrhoea, malaria,
and malnutrition)

Reduction in winter
mortality in higher
latitudes (Northern
Europe, USA)

Permafrost thawing
damages buildings
and roads in parts of
Canada and Russia

At least 10%of land
species facing
(according to one

80% bleaching of
coral reefs,
including Great
Barrier Reef

Circulation starts to


Potentially 20 - 30%
decrease in water
availability in some
vulnerable regions,
e.g. Southern Africa
and Mediterranean

Sharp declines in
crop yield in tropical
regions (5 - 10% in

40 \u2013 60 million more
people exposed to
malaria in Africa

Up to 10 million
more people
affected by coastal
flooding each year

15 \u2013 40%of species
facing extinction
(according to one

High risk of
extinction of Arctic
species, including
polar bear and


In Southern Europe,
serious droughts
occur once every 10

1 - 4 billion more
people suffer water
shortages, while 1 \u2013
5 billion gain water,
which may increase
flood risk

150 - 550 additional
millions at risk of
hunger (if carbon
fertilisation weak)

Agricultural yields in
higher latitudes
likely to peak

1 \u2013 3 million more
people die from
malnutrition (if
carbon fertilisation

1 \u2013 170 million more
people affected by
coastal flooding
each year

20 \u2013 50%of species
facing extinction
(according to one
estimate), including
25 \u2013 60% mammals,
30 \u2013 40% birds and
15 \u2013 70% butterflies
in South Africa

Onset of Amazon
forest collapse
(some models only)


Potentially 30 \u2013 50%
decrease in water
availability in
Southern Africa and

Agricultural yields
decline by 15 \u2013 35%
in Africa, and entire
regions out of
production (e.g.
parts of Australia)

Up to 80 million
more people
exposed to malaria
in Africa

7 \u2013 300 million more
people affected by
coastal flooding
each year

Loss of around half
Arctic tundra

Around half of all
the world\u2019s nature
reserves cannot
fulfill objectives


disappearance of
large glaciers in
Himalayas, affecting
one-quarter of
China\u2019s population
and hundreds of
millions in India

Continued increase
in ocean acidity
seriously disrupting
marine ecosystems
and possibly fish

Sea level rise
threatens small
islands, low-lying
coastal areas
(Florida) and major
world cities such as
New York, London,
and Tokyo

Potential for
Greenland ice sheet
to begin melting
accelerating sea
level rise and
committing world to
an eventual 7 m sea
level rise

Rising risk of abrupt
changes to
circulations, e.g. the

Rising risk of
collapse of West
Antarctic Ice Sheet

Rising risk of
collapse of Atlantic

than 5\u00b0C

The latest science suggests that the Earth\u2019s average temperature will rise by even more than 5 or 6\u00b0C if emissions continue to grow and
positive feedbacks amplify the warming effect of greenhouse gases (e.g. release of carbon dioxide from soils or methane from permafrost).
This level of global temperature rise would be equivalent to the amount of warming that occurred between the last age and today \u2013 and is
likely to lead to major disruption and large-scale movement of population. Such \u201csocially contingent\u201d effects could be catastrophic, but are
currently very hard to capture with current models as temperatures would be so far outside human experience.

Note: This table shows illustrative impacts at different degrees of warming. Some of the uncertainty is captured in the ranges shown, but there will be
additional uncertainties about the exact size of impacts (more detail in Box 3.2). Temperatures represent increases relative to pre-industrial levels. At
each temperature, the impacts are expressed for a 1\u00b0C band around the central temperature, e.g. 1\u00b0C represents the range 0.5 \u2013 1.5\u00b0C etc. Numbers of
people affected at different temperatures assume population and GDP scenarios for the 2080s from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
(IPCC). Figures generally assume adaptation at the level of an individual or firm, but not economy-wide adaptations due to policy intervention (covered
in Part V).

STERN REVIEW: The Economics of Climate Change

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