The London Accord

History

• The IPCC shows that the world needs to act to avoid disastrous climate change, and act now.
• The Stern Report shows that the overall cost of strong early action is much less than the cost of inaction.
• The International Energy Agency shows the changes in fuel mix and energy usage that are necessary to stabilise greenhouse gas concentrations at a safe level.
• The UN Framework Convention on Climate Change shows how much money is required by region and by technology to realise a scenario that achieves stabilisation.
• The UNFCCC report shows further that 86% of that investment has to come from the private sector. That equates to private sector investment through 2030 in excess of $600bn per year.
• The London Accord report shows investors and policy makers by technology how attractive that private investment is, at the end of 2007.

  Findings

• energy investment is going to become much, much riskier
• key governmental focus should be on establishing cap-and-trade markets, then international carbon standards, then regulation; not taxation
• forestry is a big unknown – governments should fund research into the real extent of abatement potential and the real costs of forestation
• carbon capture and sequestration/storage seems an unrealistic investment

Quotes about the London Accord