Climate change policies could increase GDP

Economic output across the globe could be increased by around $2.6 trillion (£1.53 trillion) a year by 2030 if energy-efficiency, public transport and waste management policies work. 

A new report from the World Bank has suggested that government policies to help reduce emissions could increase global economic output by as much as 2.2 per cent a year.

The report, which had input from the ClimateWorks Foundation, looked at the possible benefits that could arise from ambitious emission policies. It looked at what would happen if emissions are reduced throughout the building, transport and industrial sectors, as well as from cooking oils and waste across the US, China, Mexico, India, the EU and Brazil.

The analysis of this data found that gross domestic product (GDP) growth across the globe could be triggered by changing to low-carbon transport and by making buildings, factories and appliances more energy efficient. GDP increase could be as much as $1.8 trillion (1.5 per cent) each year by 2030 from these changes alone.

A further increase of 2.2 per cent ($2.6 trillion) could be seen if there is a rise in financing and technology investment, the World Bank report said.

As well as increasing GDP, the policies could also help to prevent a minimum of 94,000 premature deaths caused by air pollution-related diseases each year. Policies could also reduce climate change-causing emissions by around 8.5 billion tonnes, as well as improve crop productivity.

An example of the advantages is that China could make an extra $11 billion in economic benefits and cut down pollution-related premature deaths by around one million if they were to deploy 70 million low-carbon cook stoves, cutting down the need for coal-powered stoves. 

The report's findings match those of the International Energy Agency (IEA) report - Energy Technology Perspectives. This suggested that putting aggressive policies in place to reduce emissions and increase renewable energy could keep global temperatures before the two degrees Celsius target.