Stern Report Questioned.....

Nice to see some more skepticism...wish there was more at the time the report was released....

It changed the course of the global debate about climate change, but now the British Government's Stern Review on climate change has been heavily criticised by Australia's Productivity Commission.

The commission, which acts as the Federal Government's economic policy reviewer, says the Stern Review was as much about advocacy as it was about analysis.

Former World Bank chief economist Sir Nicolas Stern raised alarm in 2006 by putting a price tag on climate change and helped make it a hot political topic.

The Stern Review found that the world faces an economic collapse on the level of a world war or a depression if climate change is not averted.

It estimated the cost of global warming at between 5 and 20 per cent of global GDP, compared to just 1 per cent for the cost of measures to prevent it.

But Australia's top economic think-tank, the Productivity Commission, isn't convinced. It has published its own review, finding Sir Nicolas exaggerated the economic costs.

"The review's 'urgent' language can be explained by it being as much an exercise in advocacy as it is an economic analysis of climate change," the commission said.

"It draws heavily on studies that have a more pessimistic view on climate change and its impacts, and gives little attention to more optimistic views."

The Productivity Commission has examined the methodology behind the Stern Review, and concludes the findings can't be called definitive.

"The assertiveness with which some of the headline messages are delivered is not always matched by the caution attached to the evidence and analysis presented within the body of the report," it said.