news
From Common Dreams
Summary
A recent report from U.K. actuaries and climate scientists at the University of Exeter titled Planetary Solvency—Finding Our Balance With Nature warns of the impending risk of “planetary insolvency” unless decisive action is taken against climate change. The report projects a staggering 50% contraction in global GDP between 2070 and 2090 unless alternative courses of action are adopted. It underscores the severe consequences of unchecked human activity, particularly fossil fuel consumption, which accelerates climate change and biodiversity loss, leading to catastrophic impacts on food security, sea levels, and global weather patterns.
The authors call for immediate and effective risk management strategies, including annual assessments of ecological impacts, governance improvements, and a commitment to limiting global warming to avert tipping points that could lead to irreversible climate damage.
Highlights
- 🌍 Planetary Insolvency Risk: A significant economic contraction (50% GDP drop) projected for the years 2070-2090 unless immediate action is taken.
- 🔥 Climate Disasters: Unprecedented wildfires and natural disasters, including 27 billion-dollar events in the U.S. in 2024, highlight the urgent need for action.
- 📉 Economic Miscalculations: Current climate risk assessment methodologies significantly underestimate the potential economic impacts of climate change.
- 🌡️ Tipping Points: The report warns that triggering multiple environmental tipping points could lead to a point of no return for climate stabilization.
- 🌱 Need for Governance Improvement: Calls for enhanced governance structures to better manage ecological risks and promote planetary solvency.
- 💔 Food Security Threats: Increased risks of mass mortality due to hunger and infectious diseases as climate change disrupts food systems.
- 🌿 Nature as Foundation: Emphasizes that a stable society relies on healthy ecosystems, urging policymakers to prioritize ecological integrity.
U.K. actuaries and University of Exeter climate scientists on Thursday warned that “the risk of planetary insolvency looms unless we act decisively” and urged policymakers to “implement realistic and effective approaches to global risk management.”
Actuaries have developed techniques that “underpin the functioning of the global pension market with $55 trillion of assets, and the global insurance market, collecting $8 trillion of premiums annually, to help us manage risk,” Tim Lenton, University of Exeter’s climate change and Earth system science chair, noted in the foreword of a report released Thursday.
Planetary Solvency—Finding Our Balance With Nature is the fourth report for which the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries (IFoA) has collaborated with climate scientists. In financial terms, solvency is the ability of people or companies to pay their long-term debts. Co-authors of one of the previous publications coined the phrase planetary solvency, “setting out the idea that financial risk management techniques could be adapted to help society manage climate change and other risks.”
[...]
Read the full post at Common Dreams.
