By Gerard Wynn
LONDON (Reuters) - Climate change will likely cost every global citizen something in the years ahead, although the payback will be much greater, policymakers, scientists and officials told a Reuters summit this week.
"I think it will be every citizen, (but) that bill may not in the end be as high for the individual as it's often made out to be," said Achim Steiner, head of the U.N. Environment Program.
Not overtly spending now on the fight against climate change would still cost something, effectively borrowing from the future at the cost of future damage of widely expected extreme weather including floods, drought and sea level rise.
"The slightly depressing answer is that the highest part of the bill unfortunately will be paid by my children and their children, because they will have to pay the costs of living with climate change," said Steiner.
"There's a real intergenerational dilemma here."
The difficulty is striking the right balance, especially difficult given all the uncertainty about just how bad global warming will be in the future.
"The payoff will be a healthy planet," said Peter Garrett, environment spokesman for Australia's opposition Labor party, who will become the country's next environment minister if Labor wins national elections due within weeks.
"Frankly, at the end of the day, to generations to come (the payoff) would be difficult to put a price upon." Continued...
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