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 The UN Climate Panel just released its latest climate report. Yes, climate change is real. But many politicians and media pundits vastly overreacted. The scare stories of "climate apocalypse" are not supported by this new report.
Reporting ignores that only few of the claimed climate impacts are actually documented. It also disregards our adaptive capacity and positive climate impacts such as global greening or fewer cold deaths. One of the clearest ways to see it's not all doom and gloom is through climate economics. Because of climate change, the average person worldwide will be “only” 436 percent as well off in 2100 as they are now, instead of 450 percent. This is not the apocalypse but a problem we should fix smartly.
 
Lomborg's analysis of the IPCC report was published in newspapers across all continents, including New York Post (USA), China Daily, Die Welt (Germany), The Australian, Financial Post (Canada), de Volkskrant (Netherlands), Berlingske (Denmark), Kristianstadsbladet (Sweden), Milenio (Mexico), El Tiempo (Colombia), La Tercera (Chile), El Universo (Ecuador), Entorno Inteligente (Venezuela), El Periodico (Guatemala), Los Tiempos (Bolivia), Jakarta Post (Indonesia, print), Business Day (South Africa) and The Punch (Nigeria).
Lomborg was also interviewed about the IPCC report by Wall Street Journal editor Paul Gigot for the Journal Editorial Report, FOX News and Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten.
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This summer, a lot of attention has been given to extreme weather events such as the floods in Germany and Belgium or fires and extreme heat in the US and Canada, with a major focus being their alleged connection to climate change. Campaigners and politicians are urging drastic policies based on the claim that the "climate apocalypse" is becoming more and more deadly.
A closer look at the data, however, does not support this narrative at all. Lomborg explains in Wall Street Journal that over the past century, climate-related deaths have dropped an astounding 96%. And despite the sensationalist reporting about fires, heat and floods, 2021 is on track to achieve a century-long climate-related death risk decline of 99.7%.
Lomborg's analysis was also reported in multiple media outlets around the globe, e.g. in Britain's The Times or by Estonia's public broadcaster ERR.
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Saying out loud what many people already think about electric cars, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s climate spokeswoman, Allegra Stratton, has received a lot of green flak. She says she’s not yet willing to trade in her old diesel car for a sparkling new electric, because it is inconvenient for her driving needs. In her honesty, Ms Stratton has highlighted the elitist illusion of much green thinking.
The hard truth is that electric cars won't "save the world." Even if all nations achieved all of their ambitious EV targets, emissions will be reduced by about 0.1% by 2030. If this reduction is maintained throughout the century, temperatures will be reduced by 0.002°C by 2100.
Bjorn Lomborg points out in Britain's largest broadsheet newspaper The Telegraph that rather than listening to what they say, maybe we are better off looking at what climate spokespeople do. He also discussed US President Biden's executive order declaring that half of all new cars sold by 2030 must be electric on Fox and Friends.
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When it comes to tackling deaths from extreme temperatures, current climate reporting leaves us in the dark. It makes us focus on the costliest and least effective way to help future victims of heat and cold. It even risks exacerbating cold deaths by raising heating costs. Moreover, the media do a great disserve by telling a story singularly focused on heat deaths, while ignoring the much deadlier problem of cold.
A new study in the highly respected journal Lancet shows that about half a million people die from heat per year, but 4.5 million people die from cold. As temperatures have increased over the past two decades, that has caused an extra 116,000 heat deaths each year. This, of course, fits the narrative and is what we have heard over and over again. But it turns out that because global warming has also reduced cold waves, we now see 283,000 fewer cold deaths.
Lomborg wrote about this in newspapers around the world, e.g. New York Post (USA), China Daily, Financial Post (Canada), The Australian, Berlingske (Denmark), El Tiempo (Colombia), Milenio (Mexico), Perfil (Argentina), La Tercera (Chile), El Universo (Ecuador), Los Tiempos (Bolivia), Portfolio (Hungary), Jakarta Post (Indonesia), Addis Fortune (Ethiopia), Business Day (South Africa) and Phnom Penh Post (Cambodia).
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Finding the best policies for Malawi
Copenhagen Consensus is partnering with the National Planning Commission of Malawi and the African Institute for Development Policy (AFIDEP) to find the most effective policy solutions for Malawi. Malawi Priorities will facilitate a prioritization of policy options for the country based on cost-benefit analyses. It will also seek to identify interventions that will enable the government to generate more financial resources to finance its development agenda.
 New policy briefs and research papers are being released on a regular basis, with the most recent publications focussing on topics such as industrialization and youth employment, road infrastructure for tourism, and resource management. The findings are presented to decision makers, the media and the general public across multiple channels, including panel debates with high-ranking officials and academics. |
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