Speaking at the Cambridge Union on Wednesday night, controversial academic and self-styled “sceptical enviromentalist” Bjørn Lomborg condemned the Kyoto Protocol as an ineffective mechanism for dealing with climate change, and called for governments to focus resources on more immediate concerns such as Malaria and HIV/AIDS.

Lomborg, who received numerous challenges from members of the Union audience, reiterated claims that some of the best publicised arguments regarding global warming are “alarmist”. “Global warming is real and man made. It’s one of the most complex problems in the world,” he told the chamber. “But we need a sense of proportion. Doomsday is not nigh.”

He maintained that environmentalists ought to recognise “the positives as well as negatives” of global warming. He claimed that by 2050, 20,000 fewer people will be dying from cold in the UK than the current annual figure. The extra deaths from very high temperatures will total approximately 2000.

Lomborg explained that addressing global problems such as the spread of disease would give us better value for money than an attempt to tackle global warming with the Kyoto Protocol, which would have “a dramatically small effect.”

“Kyoto will cost $186 billion simply to postpone global warming by five years. The task at hand is to make sure our kids and grandkids have much better technology to deal with these problems.”

Katy Lee

Next week: full Bjørn Lomborg interview.