Standing Room Only For Nicholas Stern As Economist Discusses Cost Of Doing Nothing - Toronto Star

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It was standing room only at an Economic Club luncheon yesterday at the Hilton Hotel, where Bay St. types eagerly awaited their guest speaker. The big draw? It wasn't a former U.S. president, like Bill Clinton, or a head of government, like British Prime Minister Tony Blair, or even a corporate icon like Microsoft chairman Bill Gates. The main attraction was British economist Sir Nicholas Stern and the topic of his speech: climate change.

How things have changed.

"Only a few years ago you would have seen climate change attract a much smaller audience than we have here today," said Clive Mather, chief executive of Shell Canada, as he introduced Sir Nicholas to hundreds of Canada's business and political elite, including Mayor David Miller, Ontario PC leader John Tory and former Ontario premier Bob Rae. A few years ago? Try last winter.

The packed event was yet another sign that the politics of global warming and the call to action has reached a crucial tipping point. Big business is waking up, and in many ways taking more leadership on the issue than our risk-averse governments. Stern can take some credit for that. The former chief economist for the World Bank and current economic adviser to the British government created a global stir last October with his Stern Review, a 700-page analysis that, for the first time, attempted the Herculean task of quantifying the economic cost of both fighting and doing nothing about climate change.

The cost of not acting grabbed the biggest headlines. "That I think was the shocker and the thing that put this on the map," said environmentalist David Suzuki, who along with Stern spoke earlier in the day to students at the University of Toronto. Stern concluded in his controversial report that spending 1 per cent of gross domestic product on emission-reduction and adaptation strategies could, between now and 2050, significantly lower the risk associated with climate change.

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http://www.thestar.com/Business/article/183518