Britain to host climate change economics meeting

LONDON, Feb 7 (Reuters) Britain will later this year host a meeting of politicians and economists from around the world to discuss the costs of climate change, chief government economist Nicholas Stern said.

Stern is the author of a report that last October warned that the costs of delaying action on global warming could be 20 times higher than acting now on areas such as curbing the burning of fossil fuels.

''It's a gathering of parliamentarians and economists from different countries to talk through the issues,'' he said yesterday of the planned conference which is likely to take place towards the end of the year.

Finance minister Gordon Brown has asked Stern and Colin Challen, chair of the UK All Party Parliamentary Climate Change Group, to organise the event.

Speaking to a committee of British parliamentarians on Tuesday, Stern said that the world was already committed to a 2 or 3 degrees celsius temperature increase above pre-industrial levels even if the world takes tough action now.

''Temperature increases are on the way because of what we've done in the past,'' he said.

Britain, which has pushed global warming high up the international political agenda, will next month bring in a law setting itself a target of cutting carbon dioxide emissions by 60 percent by 2050.

REUTERS RL VV0916