Bjorn Lomborg – Our priorities are distorted by our obsession with climate change

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Over the past decade, the global elite’s obsession with climate change has taken away from the many other major problems facing the planet — shown most dramatically by the invasion of Ukraine. Instead of shutting down the nuclear plants and becoming too dependent on Russia, Western European leaders could have spent the last decade diversifying energy sources. The looming war is not the only thing they have failed to notice.

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The greatest challenge facing humanity today is lifting the majority of the world from poverty. This can only happen if poor countries have access to reliable and comprehensive energy sources. That’s how the rich world became prosperous, and it is how China lifted almost a billion out of poverty. Yet, while the world’s rich countries are overwhelmingly powered by fossil fuels, the elite has worked hard to make these energy sources both more expensive and There are fewer options for the world’s poorest.

Right now, we’re still recovering from the worst pandemic in a century. The global economy is facing inflation, supply shortages and possible recession. While autocracies are asserting their power, the most vulnerable are already experiencing food crises. Tuberculosis, malaria and malnutrition — each effectively handled in the rich world — still claim millions of lives each year across poor countries.

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However, major donors and international development organizations have shifted their focus to climate solutions. One month after Ukraine was invaded, the head of the United Nations — an organization focused on ensuring world peace — was instead Warning about “Climate catastrophe,” and the “Mutually assured destruction” that fossil fuel “addiction” could cause.

It would be exaggerated to say that, despite real threats mounting, the rich world was still experimenting with solar panels and banning straws. This is a slight exaggeration.

How is it possible that the elites have managed to get things so wrong. One reason is the way that the media has painted climate change impacts as horrible for years. Today, almost every natural disaster routinely gets blamed on the climate crisis, with every new hurricane held up as another exhibit of man’s folly. Yet, hurricanes killed Many more people have lived in the past. Major Scientific paper from last month documents “decreasing trends” in global hurricane frequency and strength. The data shows the world had fewer hurricanes in 2017 than it did in 2008. Never beforeTheir combined strength was one the most important in the satellite era. Lowest.

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The true impact of climate change is far more complex. The UN climate panel is made up of scientists FindsA warmer world will lead to fewer (good) and stronger (worse), hurricanes. This will result in more damage (bad), but the world will also become richer and more resilient. The relative damage will continue to declineJust slightly slower. This is a problem that we mustn’t ignore. It is not a catastrophe, however. Global climate destruction in per cent GDP continues to decline and climate disaster deaths continue to increase dropped 99 per centIn a century.

For the best sense of what to really expect from a warming planet, we should turn to the damage estimates from the models used by President Joe Biden’s Administration, and president Barack Obama’s before that to set climate policy. This research reveals that the entire global cost of climate change — not just to economies, but in every sense — will be equivalent to less than a GDP hit by 4.0 percentBy the end of this century.

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Remember, by the UN’s Your own estimatesThe average person in 2100 is going to be 45% more wealthy than today. Global warming means she will be “only” 434 per cent as rich. This is a problem, but — contrary to the histrionics — far from catastrophic.

A narrow focus on climate targets is detrimental to the future prosperity of wealthy countries. Already, the world spends more than Half a Trillion DollarsEach year, climate policies are being funded by the rich world, while innovation in areas such as space, defense, health care, agriculture, and science is being funded by the rich world governments. In recent decades, the percentage of GDP that has fallen has been declining. This investment is vital to our future growth. Together with a stagnant or decliningEducation performance and rich-world income Nearly stalledThis century. This compares to China, where innovation expenditure is up 50%, education rapidly improving, and average household incomes have increased fivefold since 2000.

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Alarmingly, despite the extraordinary focus, we’re failing even to solve climate change itself. Last year saw the largest CO₂ emissions ever.

Earlier this year, the world’s elite gathered for the World Economic Forum and were asked to name “the most severe risks on a global scale over the next 10 years.” They absurdly chose “climate action failure” — right before Russia started bombing Chernobyl and Kyiv.

The world has Many challengesThese are not the only ones that get the most media coverage. Climate needs to be addressed more effectively funding R&D in green energy sourcesThey eventually will outcompete fossil fuels. We must confront authoritarian expansionism in Ukraine, and elsewhere. To ensure long-term prosperity, we need more affordable energy, better education, and more innovation. To overcome the elitist hyperbole about climate change, we need to regain our perspective.

Bjorn Lomborg is President of the Copenhagen Consensus and Visiting Fellow at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution. His latest book is “False Alarm: How Climate Change Panic Costs Us Trillions, Hurts the Poor, and Fails to Fix the Planet.”