Italy estimates 50 billion euros in climate change damages
Pastor Dale Morgan
Italy estimates 50 billion euros in climate change damages*
ROME, Sept 12 (AFP) Sep 12, 2007
Italy's cost for environmental damages due to climate change is
estimated at 50 billion euros (69 billion dollars) per year, the Italian
Environment Ministry said Wednesday at a climate change conference.
"The temperature in Italy has risen four times more than the rest of the
world, and the rains have diminished five percent over the last century,
as bouts of dryness have multiplied," Environment Minister Alfonso
Pecoraro Scanio said.
He told attendees these estimates are based on an October 2006 report by
Sir Nicholas Stern, former head economist for the World Bank. Stern
evaluated damage due to changing weather conditions at more than 5,500
billion euros.
An official report published a day before the meeting also sounded the
alarm on the rise in global water temperatures, which has started to
change the equilibrium of the Mediterranean Sea and threaten animal and
plant life.