# Stern’s 2006 review warned climate inaction would cost more than cutting emissions

- URL: https://talkfuse.com/story/the-climate-crisis-will-destroy-our-economies-we-learned-this-20-years-ago-when-will-we-act-fiona-harvey/
- Published: 2026-10-28T08:00:01+00:00
- Updated: 2026-10-28T08:32:43+00:00
- Original publisher: The Guardian (publisher lean: Left)
- Original article: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/oct/28/nicholas-stern-report-climate-consensus-lessons-capitalism
- Topics: Art, Business, Climate, Culture, Science

## Key points

- Stern’s review made the economic case for climate action.
- It challenged discounting the costs faced by future generations.
- The author says its warnings have proved conservative.

## Summary

Nicholas Stern’s 2006 review argued that the economic damage from climate inaction would exceed the cost of cutting emissions, challenging the view that global heating was a manageable economic problem. Its case that a low-carbon economy could still grow helped governments justify climate policies and gave voters and courts grounds to challenge delay.

The review’s 700 pages also described climate change as a market failure and challenged the use of discount rates that make future harms and lives count for less in today’s calculations. It opposed earlier arguments for accepting 3C to 4C of warming; the author says Stern underestimated how quickly temperatures would rise and the economic damage, while overestimating the cost of renewable energy.

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