The Economics of Climate Change

Sir Nicholas Stern is Adviser to the UK Government on the Economics of Climate Change and Development, reporting to the Prime Minister. As well as being Head of the Stern Review on the Economics of Climate Change, he is Head of the Government Economic Service, and previously Second Permanent Secretary to Her Majesty's Treasury and Director of Policy and Research for the Prime Minister's Commission for Africa. He is also a former Chief Economist for the World Bank and Special Counsellor to the President of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development. His research and publications have focused on economic development and growth, economic theory, tax reform, public policy and the role of the state and economies in transition. He is a Fellow of the British Academy and a Foreign Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. His most recent book is Growth and Empowerment: Making Development Happen (MIT Press, 2005).

'The Stern Review shows us, with utmost clarity, while allowing fully for all the uncertainties, what global warming is going to mean; and what can and should be done to reduce it. It provides numbers for the economic impact, and for the necessary economic policies. It deserves the widest circulation. I wish it the greatest possible impact. Governments have a clear and immediate duty to accept the challenge it represents.' Sir James Mirrlees, recipient of the Nobel Prize for Economics, 1996

• 1. Climate change: our approach; 2. Impacts of climate change on growth and development; 3. The economics of stabilisation; 4. Policy responses for mitigation; 5. Policy responses for adaptation; 6. International collective action.