Although Lord Nicholas Stern is “more worried that I was a decade ago,” technological advances in the auto industry offer some hope for the future against the impact of climate change.
Ford Motor Company says it is planning to build 40 electrified vehicles for its global lineup by 2022. Sixteen of the new vehicles will be fully electric and the rest will be plug-in hybrids, executives said.
“No one can predict the consequences of climate change with complete certainty; but we now know enough to understand the risks. Mitigation – taking strong action to reduce emissions – must be viewed as an investment, a cost incurred now and in the coming few decades to avoid the risks of very severe consequences in the future,” the Stern Review noted.
“If these investments are made wisely, the costs will be manageable, and there will be a wide range of opportunities for growth and development along the way,” it added.
Stern said this week the challenges remain daunting. The world will be required, by population growth, the size of global economy is likely to double in the next 20 years and the urban population around the world in the next 35 years.
Read the article at The Detroit Bureau.