The Stern Review

Talking about this dear mister Blair, a 600 pages long report has been published in the UK recently: The Stern Review. The later has been called after Sir Nicholas Stern, the Head of the Government Economic Service in the UK and the former chief economist of the World Bank in Washington. This report is the first to evaluate the cost of climate change. Anaïs and I are in an English course entitled ‘Focus on environmental engineering and energy management’. What a program! But in fact it is really interesting; we are reading scientific articles and talking about the climate changes and about what we could do to limit the damage and so on. To illustrate what we are studying, I will summarize the opinions of different important persons on this subject.
A report concerning the climate change has been presented a few days ago. Tony Blair has supported it and has asked other countries to do the same. A BBC correspondent has asked several persons about the Stern Review.
Steve Radley, who is the Chief Economist for the Engineering Employers association, tells the correspondent that it is a great danger for employment. Actually, companies can be interested in relocating their companies to countries where there is less strict control. He thinks about China where the control is, at the moment, much less stringent. This kind of ‘relocation’ is starting to happen. Radley admits that he is himself paying attention to where the best countries for creating companies are. He wants to send a message to the government, asking them not to be so strict! The world needs a global solution and we should not forget that the UK produces only 2% of the greenhouse gazes.
Professor Peter Smith, Alternative Energy Expert, praises the Stern Review and he says that this report puts Gordon Brown, the possible successor to Tony Blair, in the limelight. He is being tested by this particular report and people are anxious about his response. He insists on a particular point: where will the money from the green tax go? He says that it is stupid if the money from the tax serves for hospitals, schools or stuff like that. This is not acceptable. At the question whether he thinks Gordon Brown will be enthusiastic about the idea of ‘green taxes’, he answers that in his opinion Gordon Brown has never been enthusiastic about anything. Smith remembers the ‘Smokey days’ in London in 1953. It took him 3 days to get out of London. Smoke from chimneys had reduced the visibility considerably. He gives this example to illustrate that the pollution has been reduced; the smoke regulation has had an impact on soot.
Finally, Manus Cranny, Stock Market Expert of Cantor Index, insists on the fact that the reality of this report may have a pretty negative impact for global industry and employment. Many countries have the ambition to reduce carbon emissions but since 1997 and the signature of the Kyoto treaty there has been a progress! The US blocks the good evolution of this treaty. If the 7 richest countries do not cooperate, there will be no significant changes. We shouldn’t forget that the oil industries make money from producing energy NOT from reducing the carbon emissions in the environment!!