“Global warming will claim lives in another way: by increasing the number of people at risk of catching malaria by about 3 percent over this century. According to scientific models, implementing the Kyoto Protocol for the rest of this century would reduce the malaria risk by just 0.2 percent. On the other hand, we could spend $3 billion annually — 2 percent of the protocol’s cost — on mosquito nets and medication and cut malaria incidence almost in half within a decade.”
To significantly reduce the cost of cutting emissions Lomborg proposes we “dramatically increase spending on research and development of low-carbon energy. Ideally, every nation should commit to spending 0.05 percent of its gross domestic product exploring non-carbon-emitting energy technologies, be they wind, wave or solar power, or capturing CO2emissions from power plants. This spending could add up to about $25 billion per year but would still be seven times cheaper than the Kyoto Protocol and would increase global R&D tenfold. All nations would be involved, yet the richer ones would pay the larger share.”
Lomborg reminds us that, finding solutions to climate change “will take the better part of a century and will require a political will spanning political parties, continents and generations.” And in order to get there, “we really need to cool our debate.”
Read “Chill out. Stop fighting over global warming — here’s the smart way to attack it.” by Bjorn Lomborg here.
COOL IT, the documentary featuring Bjorn Lomborg, opens in theaters beginning November 12.
For more information about Bjorn Lombog and the Copenhagen Consensus, a think-tank based in Denmark that tells governments and philanthropists about the best ways to spend aid and development money, visit: Copenhagen Consensus and FixTheClimate.com.
