Economy versus climate: where do we spend next?

The latest research shows that spending on economic recovery and climate change must be coordinated and complementary, writes GREG GARDINER

WHAT is the greatest threat to humankind: a sinking global economy, or a warming planet? We know the big and ongoing story has been the crisis in the global economy, a crisis addressed by governments worldwide, including Australia’s, with record spending packages. But this crisis has masked another: the crisis of accelerating climate change. New research has shown climate change is accelerating at a rate no one predicted or expected. The projections of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which last reported in November 2007, may now be redundant.