Report of the Week: PriceWaterhouseCoopers on Climate Change and Growth

Thanks to Green Car Congress for This, an alternative report of the week for those of us who dont live in the northeast USA.

PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) has released a new study that concludes global carbon dioxide emissions could double by 2050 given a business-as-usual (BAU) approach combined with the rapid economic growth of emerging countries such as China and India and continued more moderate growth in today’s advanced economies.

Of the six different scenarios considered, only the “Green Growth + CCS” strategy stabilizes atmospheric CO2 concentrations by 2050 at what the current scientific consensus suggests would be broadly acceptable levels. This Green Growth Plus scenario incorporates possible emission reductions due to a greener fuel mix, annual energy efficiency gains over and above the historic trend, and widespread use of carbon capture and storage (CCS) technologies.

Its a facinating report but lengthy so worth being ungreen and printing off (two sided on reccled paper).

The costs are encouraging...although the science (60% by 2050?) is somewhat dated, i wonder how much more 90% cuts would cost.

Our analysis suggests that there are technologically feasible and relatively low-cost options for controlling carbon emissions to the atmosphere. Estimates suggest that the level of GDP might be reduced by no more than around 2-3% in 2050 if this strategy was followed, equivalent to sacrificing only around a year of economic growth for the sake of reducing carbon emissions in 2050 by around 60% compared to our baseline scenario.

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