Canada Global (Web News) A new analysis warns that climate change could cost the Canadian economy billions of dollars over the coming decades as world leaders meet for a United Nations climate conference.
According to the Parliamentary Budget Officer’s study, the continued alteration of weather patterns brought on by emissions is expected to reduce Canada’s real GDP by 5.8% by the year 2100.
PBO Yves Giroux stated in a statement that “our study demonstrates that climate change has had and will continue to have a negative impact on the Canadian economy.”
The report acknowledged that the data raises a number of unanswered issues and that “some complex issues such as adaptation, international economic spillovers, transition within industries and regions, as well as exceptional increases in extreme weather events are not fully captured in our analysis.”
Even though there is uncertainty in a wide variety of categories (such as emissions, climate impacts, and GDP implications), Giroux said in the study that the budget watchdog’s prediction provides “a method to focus on climate policy.”
The PBO analysis said that the consequences of increasing temperatures and precipitation have affected the nation’s real GDP by 0.8% last year and warned that “severe climatic events” are predicted to increase as the climate changes.
Recent extreme weather events have had a significant economic impact across Canada.
The most extreme weather occurrence in Atlantic Canada this year was Hurricane Fiona, which resulted in insured damages of $660 million.
The most expensive weather event in the province’s history, severe floods in British Columbia caused an estimated $675 million in insured damages.
