Leaders from the world’s top 17 developed and developing economies will gather on July 11 for the Major Economies Forum, or MEF, in Paris, knowing they must return to this city in 2015 to finalize a global climate agreement. World leaders must dig deep now to set in motion near-term actions that support low-carbon economic growth and deliver a climate deal strong enough to prevent catastrophic climate change.
The science has never been clearer. Countries must take action now to reduce heat-trapping pollution over the next decades; only then can they avoid the crushing costs of more severe floods, droughts, sea-level rise, and other extreme weather events driven by steadily rising global temperatures. A new report from the Risky Business Project estimates that the costs of climate change could rise to hundreds of billions of dollars by 2100. The study reveals the wide-ranging financial risks of climate inaction, including the more than $50 billion worth of coastal assets likely to be underwater by 2050 as sea levels continue to rise, and the expected 50 percent to 70 percent drop in crop yields over the next decade alone. The latter will cost corn and wheat farmers in the American Southeast, Great Plains, and Midwest tens of billions of dollars.
See full Article: http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/green/news/2014/07/08/93383/4-ways-world-leaders-can-win-at-the-climate-leaders-summit/
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