Even before the UK government's comprehensive report on the global economic impact of climate change was published, commentators and bloggers on both sides of the Atlantic were already rubbishing its contents.
Under the headline "Bad Climate Science Yields Worse Economics," Stephen Milloy, a scholar at the Cato Institute, wrote on his "junkscience" blog: "The British government is preparing to fire a new round of global warming alarmism at the US next week."
The piece, which also appears on the Fox News Web site, dismisses the study as "[Al] Gore's junk science shaping Stern's junk economics."
Climate change sceptics in the UK had a pop at Stern in January when he released three papers that served as a preliminary report into the review's progress. A critique by a group of nine economists, including former UK finance minister Nigel Lawson, described the Stern review as a "misdirected exercise."
"By taking as given hypotheses that remain uncertain, assertions that are debatable or mistaken, and processes of inquiry that are at fault, the review has put itself on a path that can lead to no useful outcome," they wrote.
But Neil Adger, an economist at the Tyndall Center for climate change research, said: "The sceptics have been trying to rubbish the Stern report from the start because they know that it is so important who is actually saying these things. Stern is the chief economist, he is the man who designs our tax system, he is Gordon Brown's right-hand man ... [The review] is going to hold a lot of sway both in the Treasury and the prime minister's office."
Despite the apocalyptic nature of Stern's conclusions, Adger said the real cost may be even higher because the impact of some consequences of climate change, such as extinctions of species and cultures, cannot be quantified.
"Those additional risks make even Stern's figures look conservative," he said.
"We've been told that it will cost too much to do something ... [but] Stern gives us the evidence that it will cost too much not to do something. It really is a knockout blow," said Ben Stewart of Greenpeace.
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