PricewaterhouseCoopers Brings a Dose of Global Warming Reality to Practically Minded Business People — Paraphrased, “It’s Happening Rapidly, We Aren’t Doing Anything, So Prepare Your Infrastructures for a 6 Degree Celsius Warming by 2100”

© 2012 Peter Free

 

05 November 2012

 

 

Citation — to PwC report

 

Leo Johnson, Richard Gledhill, Jonathan Grant, and Li Ping Low, Too late for 2 degrees? Low carbon economy index 2012, PricewaterhouseCoopers (November 2012) (PDF)

  

Why do we care what PricewaterhouseCoopers says?

 

PwC is the world’s largest professional services company.  Lay people most often recognize the name for its accounting fame.

 

 

PwC’s plain-spoken warning

 

From the report:

 

We estimate that the world economy now needs to reduce its carbon intensity by 5.1% every year to 2050 to have a fair chance of limiting warming to 2°C above pre-industrial levels.

 

Even to have a reasonable prospect of getting to a 4°C scenario would imply nearly quadrupling the current rate of decarbonisation. The decarbonisation rate required for a 2°C world has not been achieved in a single year since World War 2.

 

Governments and businesses can no longer assume that a 2°C warming world is the default scenario.

 

Any investment in long-term assets or infrastructure, particularly in coastal or low-lying regions, needs to address more pessimistic scenarios.

 

Sectors dependent on food, water, energy or ecosystem services need to scrutinise the resilience and viability of their supply chains. More carbon intensive sectors need to anticipate more invasive regulation and the possibility of stranded assets. And governments’ support for vulnerable communities needs to consider more drastic actions.

 

This suggests a need for much more ambition and urgency on climate policy, at both the national and international level.

 

Either way, business-as-usual is not an option.

 

© 2012 Leo Johnson, Richard Gledhill, Jonathan Grant, and Li Ping Low, Too late for 2 degrees? Low carbon economy index 2012, PricewaterhouseCoopers (November 2012) (at page 9) (PDF) (paragraphs split)

 

 

The moral? — Much of what we’re used to is “gonna” go away

 

I am impressed that this multinational firm would be willing to irritate some of its business clients by telling them the truth.

 

Note

 

Too bad American politicians are such cowardly nitwits in comparison, including the pretended farseeing businessman, Governor Mitt Romney — who seems to be even more obtuse on this subject than President Obama.

 

Of course, humanity is too selfishly competitive to ameliorate climate warming.  There will not be any coordinated attempts to significantly slow greenhouse gas emissions down in the foreseeable future.

 

Consequently, PwC’s warning about preparing for an uncomfortably upturned status quo is sound advice.  Though that, too, is likely to be ignored.

 

Recall how two of New York City’s major hospitals complacently did not prepare for the foreseeable effects of Hurricane Sandy.  Even though even a mediocre risk manager could have pointed out beforehand that they would lose millions of dollars — and endanger patients’ and staffs' lives — by being caught with their pants down.