Unchecked climate change could cost the global economy $178 trillion over the next 50 years, according to the Global Turning Point Report from Deloitte, released Monday, unless global leaders unite in a systemic net-zero transition. That’s a 7.6% cut to global gross domestic product in the year 2070 alone if climate change is left unchallenged, Deloitte reported during the World Economic Forum’s annual meeting. If global warming reaches around 3° Celsius by the century’s end, the toll on human lives could be significant, the report found.
Climate change will have a disproportionate impact on the most vulnerable, the report also found, leading to a loss of productivity and employment, food and water scarcity, worsening health and well-being and an overall lower standard of living around the globe.
However, Deloitte reported, if the world rapidly accelerates the transition to net-zero carbon emissions, the global economy could gain $43 trillion over the next five decades. Transforming the economy for a low-carbon future will require “extensive coordination and global collaboration throughout industries and geographies,” the report found. Collectively pivoting from an economy reliant on fossil fuels to an economy primarily powered by renewable energies would spur new sources of growth and job creation, the report found.
“It’s important that the global economy evolves to meet the challenges of climate change,” Pradeep Philip of the Deloitte Economics Institute, said in a statement. “Our analys …