Climate Expert to Obama: Come to Copenhagen

President Obama may think he’s skipping December’s United Nations climate change summit in Copenhagen, but one Lord Stern of Brentford has a message for him and other world leaders taking a stubborn stance on the subject: “If we continue with business as usual we would be looking at temperature increases of 5 degrees centigrade by early next century,” Lord Stern told The Times. — KA

Times Online:

In an interview with The Times, Lord Stern of Brentford threw down the gauntlet to the US Administration, claiming that American leadership was urgently required if this historic opportunity presented was not to be squandered. “President Obama should be there. His leadership would make an enormous difference. My message to President Obama would be: come to Copenhagen, come in a collaborative spirit and take this message to the American people.”

Lord Stern, who was chief economist at the World Bank and is the author of the landmark 2006 study on the economics of climate change, was speaking after The Times disclosed on Saturday that Mr Obama was unlikely to be there, adding to concerns that Copenhagen is unlikely to yield a workable agreement amid continued deadlock between the US, China and India over pledges to cut their greenhouse gas emissions.

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