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Warming will cost trillions, says report

Larry Elliott

FAILURE TO take action to combat climate change will cost the global economy $20 trillion a year by the end of the century, says the pressure group Friends of the Earth.

In a report, released on Friday, based on research from more than 100 scientific and economic papers, the group says allowing global warming to continue unchecked will mean a temperature rise of 4 degrees C by 2100, causing economic damage worth up to 8 per cent of global GDP.

The study coincides with research from the oil group Shell on Thursday, which said the need to find solutions to climate change could create a £30 billion market for British business over the coming decade.

According to the Friends of the Earth report, report, the impact on Britain of a 4 degrees C increase will be much hotter summers, droughts, flooding to cost £22 billion a year by 2080, a doubling of the number of people at risk of coastal flooding to 1.8 million and the need for a cooling system on the London Underground.

— © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2006

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