U.K.'s Miliband Says Climate Change Costs Will Rise If Delayed

By Mark Deen
Oct. 29 (Bloomberg) -- British Environment Secretary David Miliband said that delaying efforts to combat climate change will be more costly than tackling it now.
Cutting carbon emissions today will cost about 1 percent of economic output, compared with between 15 percent and 20 percent of gross domestic product if it is left for 40 years, Miliband said on BBC Radio 4, citing a report on climate change to be published by the Treasury's Nicholas Stern tomorrow. Some scientists attribute global warming to carbon dioxide emissions.
``The costs of climate change will become dramatically greater if we don't act,'' Miliband said. ``If Nicholas Stern does deliver a strong message, he also said the technology does exist, the financing exists and the international mechanisms exist to get to grips with this problem.''
Stern's report will recommend new taxes on cars, heating fuel, air travel and consumer goods, The Mail on Sunday reported, citing an Oct. 18 letter to Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown from Miliband. The environment secretary refused to comment directly on the newspaper article.
Miliband and Brown are trying to gain the upper hand in the climate change debate after Conservative leader David Cameron put the environment at the top of his agenda as part of an effort to change his party's image with voters. About 33 percent of voters say Cameron would do the most to tackle climate change, compared with 20 percent for Labour's Gordon Brown, according to an ICM Ltd. poll conducted for the BBC.
Brown, who commissioned former World Bank economist Stern to prepare the report, is the only Cabinet member to say he wants to replace Prime Minister Tony Blair when he steps down next year.
Global Warming
Stern's 700-page report will estimate that global warming will cost the world as much as 3.68 billion pounds ($6.98 trillion) and trigger the migration of 200 million people around the globe unless carbon emissions reach their peak within the next 10 or 15 years, The Observer reported.
``The scientific debate is closed on global warming,'' Miliband said on Sky News television. ``We've got 10 to 15 years to radically change.''
Miliband's letter asked Brown to consider a ``substantial increase'' in road taxes and levies that would encourage people to use smaller cars, The Mail said. He also suggests that taxes on gasoline should increase if oil prices decline, according to the newspaper.
David Cameron, who has also pledged more green taxes if he wins the next election, said today that he's ready to consider increasing duties on air travel.
``I don't want to stop people going on a family holiday,'' Cameron said on BBC television. Still, if dealing with climate change ``means putting a tax on air travel, then yes, that's something we'd be prepared to do.''
Wind Turbine
Cameron's West London home has a wind turbine on its roof and the opposition leader frequently travels to work by bike, though his government car follows him carrying paperwork.
Cameron's popularity lead over Brown is widening, a poll showed last week. When asked to choose between them, 46 percent of respondents said they would vote for Cameron, and 33 percent Brown, according to a YouGov Plc poll published two days ago. The 13-point difference compares with 7 points a month ago.
Blair has promised to step down before next September. The lawmaker chosen by the Labour Party to succeed him will become prime minister and can then determine the timing of a general election, which must be held by mid-2010 at the latest.

.