The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), in the third of a series of reports, said keeping the rise in temperatures to within 2 degrees Centigrade would cost only 0.12% of annual gross domestic product.
"It’s a low premium to pay to reduce the risk of major climate damage," Bill Hare, a co-author of the report, told Reuters. "It’s a great report and it’s very strong and it shows that it’s economically and technically feasible to make deep emission reductions sufficient to limit warming to 2 degrees," he said. "It shows that the costs of doing this are quite modest."
To keep within the 2 degree threshold which scientists say is needed to stave off disastrous changes to the world’s climate, emissions of carbon dioxide need to drop between 50 and 85% by 2050, the report said.
However, technological advances — particularly in producing and using energy more efficiently — meant that such targets were within reach, the report said.
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