The Global Economy, Climate, And The Coming Crisis
Climate change will make the next global crash the worst; The storm clouds are gathering, but the world’s economies now have far fewer shelters from disaster than they did in 1929
Larry Elliott, 11 October 2018 (UK Guardian)
“…[At almost the same time the IMF issued a warning about trouble ahead for the global economy, the UN intergovernmental panel on climate change (IPCC)] said the world had only a dozen years left to take the steps necessary to prevent a global warming catastrophe…[The message is: Get ready for combined economic failure and] ecological breakdown…For the past 10 years, the world economy has been surviving on a diet of low interest rates and money creation by central banks, but that stimulus is now being gradually withdrawn…[The price of crude oil] is heading steadily towards $100 a barrel. Every big recession in the global economy has been prefigured by a jump in the cost of crude…But the threat posed by global warming means the current crisis of capitalism is more acute than that of the 1930s, because all that was really required then was a boost to growth…
…[Some think the solution is] carbon-free growth, made possible by the dramatic fall in the cost of renewable energy…[A]lmost all politicians pay lip service to green growth. But then they act in ways that make achieving global warming targets harder – by building new roads and expanding airports…This is called a balanced approach…[But if the IPCC timeline is right,] speeding up the transition from fossil fuels to renewables is vital…[One of the winners of this year’s Nobel prize for economics says it can be done,] if policymakers get serious about a carbon tax set high enough to price oil, coal and gas out of the market…[But] the response to climate change looks similar to the response to the financial crisis: fail to recognise there is a problem until it is too late; panic; then muddle through…” click here for more
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