OECD: Tackling Climate Crisis Will Increase Economic Growth

“The overwhelming evidence that we now have is that we are not regressing if we invest in climate transitions."

Research by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) - the world’s economic watchdog - shows that taking strong action to tackle the climate crisis will increase countries’ economic growth, rather than damage their finances as critics of net zero policies have claimed.

Setting ambitious targets on cutting greenhouse gas emissions, and setting out the policies to achieve them, would result in a net gain to global GDP by the end of the next decade. The calculation of the net gain, of 0.23 percent by 2040, would be even greater ten years later if it included the benefit of avoiding the devastation that not cutting emissions would wreak on the economy.

By 2050, the most advanced economies would enjoy an increase of 60 percent in GDP per capita growth, while by the same date lower income countries would experience a 124 percent rise from 2025 levels.

In the shorter term, there would also be benefits for developing countries, with 175million people lifted out of poverty by the end of the decade, if governments invest in cutting emissions now.

This positive news is all set against the backdrop that a third of global GDP could be lost this century if global pollution were allowed to run unchecked.

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