The costs to developing countries of adapting to climate change : new methods and estimates - the global report of the economics of adaptation to climate change study

This initial study report, which focuses on the first objective, finds that the cost between 2010 and 2050 of adapting to an approximately 2oC warmer world by 2050 is in the range of $75 billion to $100 billion a year. This range is of the same order of magnitude as the foreign aid that developed countries now give developing countries each year, but it is still a very low percentage of the wealth of countries as measured by their gross domestic product (GDP). A second report, based on seven country case studies (Bangladesh, Plurinational State of Bolivia, Ethiopia, Ghana, Mozambique, Samoa, and Vietnam) and expected by March 2010, will focus on the second objective. The intuitive approach to costing adaptation involves comparing a future world without climate change with a future world with climate change. The difference between these two worlds entails a series of actions to adapt to the new world conditions. And the costs of these additional actions are the costs of adapting to clim