Climate change to hurt global financial assets
Climate change could wipe off the value of global assets by $2.5 trillion, according to the World Economic Forum’s (WEF) new set of economic modeling.
“Under a business-as-usual emissions path, this could cut $2.5 trillion off their value. However, under a worst-case scenario this could rise to $24.2 trillion,” said the global body, highlighting the quantum of the impact.
The WEF made the revelation after it assessed the impact of climate change on the current value of global financial assets. It said an immediate action was imperative to limit the harm on the deteriorating global climate in order to save environment as well as global economy.
“Limiting warming to no more than 2 degrees Celsius makes financial sense to risk-neutral investors – and even more so to the risk averse,” it said.
The World Economic Forum’s Global Risks Report 2016 notes that climate change poses one of the biggest risks to life on earth. The business-as-usual approach will increase global temperatures to 2.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels by 2100.
A National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) data showed February 2016 was the hottest month on record, with global surface temperatures registering 1.35 degrees Celsius above the long-term average.
The study was undertaken by the Executive Secretary for the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change Christiana Figueres and Executive Director the UN Environment Programme Achim Steiner, who called for an immediate action to be taken in order to tackle rising temperatures as it would lead to dramatic consequences.
“Any delay will cause negative consequences to continue to accumulate. This will not only cause tremendous suffering, especially to the world’s most vulnerable people; it will reverberate for decades to come,” it wrote.
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