Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what assessment his Department has made of the effect of climate change on GDP in the next four decades.

The 2007 Stern Review concluded that the impacts of unmitigated climate change could be equivalent to losing 5-20% of global GDP, with the higher range accounting for a wide range of impacts and risks. A range of scientific evidence also makes clear that the risks and impacts could be severe, with some potentially catastrophic. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s (IPCC) 5th Assessment Report and 1.5°C Special Report show that human-caused climate change has had widespread impacts on human and natural systems, for example, heatwaves are longer, hotter, and more frequent, and the sea-level is rising at a rate of 2.6 – 2.9 millimetres per year.

The UK’s 2017 Climate Change Risk Assessment (CCRA) finds that climate change poses multiple risks to the UK. Communities, businesses and infrastructure will be affected by flooding and coastal change, domestic and international food production and trade could be impacted, and our natural capital (including ecosystems, soils and biodiversity) will be at risk. People’s health, wellbeing and productivity will be at risk from high temperatures, and people, animals and plants will be at risk from new and emerging pests and diseases. The CCRA also identified that there may be economic opportunities for UK business from an increase in global demand for adaptation-related goods and services like engineering and insurance.