Climate Change Report Has Big Impact

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The political heat over global warming has just been ratcheted up several notches — and the result could be tougher new regulations on motorists and carmakers in years to come.

Last week,Great Britain published a new report by Nicolas Stern, the former chief economist for World Bank, which warned that global warming could severely damage the global economy unless steps are taken immediately to curb the increase in greenhouse gases. The report, which was trumpeted in newspapers papers across Europe, also describes the incipient change in climate now occurring around the world as a failure of the free-market economies.

The Stern report also followed the release of a separate report by European Union that indicated carmakers operating in Europe have failed to meet the voluntary targets for reducing greenhouse emissions. The automakers had pushed the voluntary scheme in the late 1990s in an effort to hold off the imposition of tougher regulations.

The European Automobile Manufacturers Association, however, was forced to admit its members had fallen short. The British newspaper The Guardian reported last week that the EU is likely to ask as soon as December for specific regulations demanding reductions emissions of carbon dioxide as soon as 2012.

In an era of global platforms and integrated product development, new regulations in Europe would almost certainly have a huge impact on American carmakers, which no longer have the financial wherewithal to support multiple product development efforts on different continents.

The publication of the report also is a setback for the Bush administration, which, according to the British press, had declined to comment on its content.

The Stern Report is now available on the Internet and includes one of the most detailed analysis yet of the potential cost of global warming. Moreover, it was clearly designed and drafted to undercut the arguments of skeptics who have argued that if global warming is a threat — and there is no evidence it is — than the cure would be far worse than the ailment.

The Stern report, however, reversed the argument.

The new report concludes that it will be less expensive for business, government, and consumers the world over to adjust and reduce greenhouse emissions than to deal with the adverse consequences global warming, which could include widespread flooding, the destruction of coastal cities and the displacement of millions.

Moreover, Stern isn't exactly a diehard environmentalist. He is a widely respected expert on taxation and is close adviser to Gordon Brown, the man likely to succeed Tony Blair, as Great Britain's next Prime Minister.

The Bush administration, while it has stated that it believes global warming is real, has continued to hold out against signing the Kyoto accords, which requires industrial nations to begin reducing the greenhouse emissions. The administration has consistently argued that the Kyoto Treaty is deeply flawed because it does not require the fast-developing economies in China and India and South America to accede to limits.

"The President has long recognized that climate change is a serious issue, and he has committed the U.S. to advancing and investing in the new technologies to help address this problem," said White House spokeswoman Kristin Hellman. "The U.S. government has produced an abundance of economic analysis on the issue of climate change. The Stern Report is another contribution to that effort."

A crackdown on greenhouse gases also runs counter to the administration's efforts to use more coal as boiler fuel in power plants that generate electricity.

However, a growing number of American states, led by California, have begun to call for tougher regulations of greenhouse emissions and carbon dioxide. In addition, large global corporations that operate on several continents are also asking the U.S. government to agree to some common global standards.