Nicholas Stern, Baron Stern of Brentford

Nicholas Stern, Baron Stern of Brentford
Nicholas Herbert Stern, Baron Stern of Brentford, (born 22 April 1946 in Hammersmith) is a British economist, banker, and academic. He is the IG Patel Professor of Economics and Government and Chair of the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment at the London School of Economics (LSE), and 2010 Professor of Collège de France. He was President of the British Academy from 2013 to 2017, and was elected Fellow of the Royal Society in 2014.
Education
After attending Latymer Upper School, Stern studied the Mathematical Tripos and was awarded a Bachelor of Arts degree in maths at Peterhouse, Cambridge in 1967. In 1971, his doctorate in economics (DPhilEcon) at Nuffield College, Oxford, with thesis on the rate of economic development and the theory of optimum planning, was supervised by James Mirrlees, winner of the Nobel Prize in Economics in 1996.
Career and research
1970–2007
He was a lecturer at the University of Oxford from 1970 to 1977 and served as a professor of economics at the University of Warwick from 1978 to 1987. From 1986 to 1993 he taught at the London School of Economics, becoming the Sir John Hicks Professor of Economics. From 1994 until 1999 he was the Chief Economist and Special Counsellor to the President of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development. His research focused on economic development and growth, and he also wrote books on Kenya and the Green Revolution in India. Since 1999, he has been a member of the International Advisory Council of the Center for Social and Economic Research (CASE). From 1999 until 2000 Stern was Chairman of the consultancy London Economics founded by John Kay.
From 2000 to 2003 he was the Chief Economist and Senior Vice-president of the World Bank. Stern was then recruited by Gordon Brown, then Chancellor of the Exchequer, to work for the British government where, in 2003, he became second permanent secretary at HM Treasury, initially with responsibility for public finances, and head of the Government Economic Service. Having also been Director of Policy and Research for the Commission for Africa, in July 2005 he was appointed to conduct reviews on the economics of climate change and also of development, which led to the publication of the Stern Review. At the time, he ceased to be a second permanent secretary at the Treasury, though he retained the rank until retirement in 2007; the review team he headed was based in the Cabinet Office. It was reported that Stern's time at the Treasury was marked by tensions with his boss, Gordon Brown:
... several Whitehall sources told The Times that Mr Brown did not like some of the advice he received from Sir Nicholas, including some "home truths" about long-term trends in the economy and he never broke into the chancellor's tight-knit inner circle. ... He subsequently lacked a real role and spent most of his time working on major international reports on global warming and alleviating poverty in Africa. His doom-laden report on the risks of failing to address climate change, published in October, caused tensions within the Government by triggering a debate on environmental taxes and leading to calls for big policy changes.
The Stern Review (2005—2006)
The Stern Review Report on the Economics of Climate Change was produced by a team led by Stern at HM Treasury, and was released in October 2006. In the review, climate change is described as an economic externality, which is a type of market failure. Stern has subsequently referred to the climate change externality as the largest ever market failure:
Climate change is a result of the greatest market failure the world has seen. The evidence on the seriousness of the risks from inaction or delayed action is now overwhelming ... The problem of climate change involves a fundamental failure of markets: those who damage others by emitting greenhouse gases generally do not pay
Regulation, carbon taxes and carbon trading, along with pollution permits and property rights, are recommended to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. It is argued that the world economy can lower its greenhouse gas emissions at a significant but manageable cost. The review concludes that immediate reductions of greenhouse gas emissions are necessary to reduce the worst risks of climate change. The review's conclusions were widely reported in the press. Stern's relatively large cost estimates of 'business-as-usual' climate change damages received particular attention. These are the estimated damages that might occur should no further effort be made to cut greenhouse gas emissions.
There has been a mixed reaction to the Stern Review from economists. Several economists have been critical of the review, for example, a paper by Byatt et al. (2006) describes the review as "deeply flawed". Some have supported the Review,
while others have argued that Stern's conclusions are reasonable, even if the method by which he reached them is incorrect. The Stern Review team has responded to criticisms of the review in several papers. Stern has also gone on to say that he underestimated the risks of climate change in the Stern Review.
Stern's approach to discounting has been debated amongst economists. The discount rate allows economic effects occurring at different times to be compared. Stern used a discount rate in his calculation of the effects of "business-as-usual" climate change damages. A high discount rate reduces the calculated benefit of reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Using too low a discount rate wastes resources because it will result in too much investment in cutting emissions (Arrow et al., 1996, p. 130). Too high a discount rate will have the opposite effect, and lead to under-investment in cutting emissions. Most studies on the damages of climate change use a higher discount rate than that used in the Stern Review. Some economists support Stern's choice of discount rate (Cline, 2008; Shah, 2008 Heal, 2008) while others are critical (Yohe and Tol, 2008; Nordhaus, 2007).
Another criticism of the Stern Review is that it is a political rather than an analytical document. Writing in the Daily Telegraph newspaper, columnist Charles Moore compared the Stern Review to the UK Government's "dodgy dossier" on Iraqi weapons of mass destruction.
2007—present
In a speech given in 2007 at the Australian National Press Club, Stern called for one per cent of gross global product to be employed in global warming-related environmental measures. He also joined the Cool Earth advisory board. In 2009, Stern linked recovery from the global economic crisis with an effective response to climate change. His book, Blueprint for a Safer Planet, was published in April 2009.
In June 2007, Stern became the first holder of the I. G. Patel Chair at the London School of Economics. In 2007, Nicholas Stern joined IDEAglobal as vice-chairman. In 2008, he was appointed Chair of the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment, a major new research centre also at LSE. He is Chair of the Centre for Climate Change Economics and Policy at Leeds University and LSE. Stern is co-chair of the Global Commission for the Economy and Climate, with Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala and Paul Polman.
In 2009, he published the non-fiction literary work, The Global Deal: Climate Change and the Creation of a New Era of Progress and Prosperity. The book examines climate change from an economist's perspective, and outlines the necessary steps toward achieving global economic growth while managing climate change. In 2009, he also became a member of the International Advisory Council of the Chinese sovereign wealth fund China Investment Corporation.
Stern is an advocate of vegetarianism as a climate change mitigation element.
He is a member of the scientific committee of the Fundacion IDEAS, Spain's Socialist Party's think tank.
In 2015, he was co-author of the report that launched the Global Apollo Programme, which calls for developed nations to commit to spending 0.02% of their GDP for 10 years, to fund co-ordinated research to make carbon-free baseload electricity less costly than electricity from coal by the year 2025.
After the successful United Nations Climate Change Conference in Paris (mid-December 2015), Stern appeared optimistic, saying, "If we get this right, it will be more powerful than the industrial revolution. A green race is going on." He also said
In November 2015 he was commissioned by the UK Minister of Universities and Science, Jo Johnson, to chair a review of the Research Excellence Framework (REF) that is used in assessing the research performance of universities and research institutes in the UK. The report was published in July 2016.
In October2021, Stern released a working paper stating that economists had grossly undervalued young lives in relation to the climate crisis. The manuscript is due to be published in the Economic Journal of the Royal Economic Society.
Awards and honours
Stern was elected a Fellow of the British Academy in 1993; he is also an Honorary Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and a Foreign Honorary Member of both the American Economic Association and the American Philosophical Society. In the 2004 Queen's Birthday Honours he was made a Knight Bachelor, for services to Economics. On 18 October 2007, it was announced that Stern would receive a life peerage and was to be made a non-party political peer (i.e. would sit as a cross-bencher in the House of Lords). He was duly created Baron Stern of Brentford, of Elsted in the County of West Sussex and of Wimbledon in the London Borough of Merton on 10 December 2007. He is, however, usually addressed as Lord Stern, or Lord Stern of Brentford.
In 2006, he was elected as an Honorary Fellow at Peterhouse, Cambridge, and he is also an Honorary Fellow of St Catherine's College, Oxford.
Stern was awarded an honorary Doctor of Science degree by the University of Warwick in 2006, an Honorary Doctor of International Relations degree by the Geneva School of Diplomacy and International Relations in 2007, an Honorary Doctor of Letters by the University of Sheffield in 2008, an Honorary Doctor by the Technische Universität Berlin in 2009 and also in 2009 an honorary degree of Doctor of Science from the University of Brighton.
In 2009, Stern was also awarded the Blue Planet Prize for his contributions to research on global environmental problems.
Stern participated in one of the showings of The Age of Stupid at the RSA. At the after-showing webcast panel discussion was director Franny Armstrong, journalist George Monbiot, and the Met Office head of climate impacts Richard Betts. In 2009 Nicholas Stern lent his support to the 10:10 project, a movement encouraging people to take positive action on climate change by reducing their carbon emissions.
Stern received the 2010 BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award in the category of Climate Change for his "pioneering report [that] shaped and focused the discourse on the economics of climate change" and provided "a unique and robust basis for decision-making."
On 11 December 2013, Stern was awarded the 2013 Stephen H. Schneider Award for Outstanding Climate Science Communication by Climate One at The Commonwealth Club in San Francisco, California.
Stern was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS) in 2014 in recognition of his work challenging the world view on the economics of climate change. In 2016, he was elected a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences (FAcSS).
Stern was appointed Member of the Order of the Companions of Honour (CH) in the 2017 Birthday Honours for services to economics, international relations, and tackling climate change.
The Kiel Institute for the World Economy announced, that Stern will be awarded the Bernhard Harms Prize 2021.
Personal life
Stern is the son of the late Bert Stern and Marion Stern and nephew of Donald Swann—half of the Flanders and Swann partnership. Richard Stern, former vice-president of the World Bank, and Brian E Stern, former vice-president of Xerox Corporation, are his brothers, and his sister is Naomi Opalinska.
Works
A Strategy for Development, World Bank Publications, 2002.
The Economics of Climate Change: The Stern Review, Cambridge University Press, 2007.
A Blueprint for a Safer Planet: How to Manage Climate Change and Create a New Era of Progress and Prosperity, Bodley Head, PublicAffairs, 2009.
The Global Deal: Climate Change and the Creation of a New Era of Progress and Prosperity, 2009.
Why Are We Waiting? The Logic, Urgency, and Promise of Tackling Climate Change, MIT Press, 2015.
References
Further reading
Personal Website
Lord Stern of Brentford – LSE Experts entry
World Bank biography
Lord Stern of Brentford, FBA at CSA Celebrity Speakers
Stern at the University of Oxford
The man behind the British Treasury’s mammoth climate change report
The UK Government's Treasury web pages about the Stern review
Article about the Stern review's conclusions on China's development
Nicholas Stern interview at The Beaver, 13 February 2007
Speech to the Economics of Climate Change Symposium, Nov 2006
'Green Routes To Growth' article published in the Guardian.co.uk's Comment Is Free Section, 23 October 2008
Launch green economic revolution now, says Stern
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1946 births
Academics of the London School of Economics
Alumni of Nuffield College, Oxford
Alumni of Peterhouse, Cambridge
British officials of the United Nations
Center for Global Development
Climate economists
Crossbench life peers
English civil servants
English economists
Environmental economists
Fellows of the Academy of Social Sciences
Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
Fellows of the British Academy
Fellows of the Econometric Society
Fellows of the Royal Society
Global Apollo Programme
Knights Bachelor
Living people
English people of German-Jewish descent
Members of HM Government Economic Service
Members of the Order of the Companions of Honour
People educated at Latymer Upper School
People from Hammersmith
People's peers
Permanent Secretaries of the Cabinet Office
Recipients of the Royal Geographical Society Patron's Medal
Second Permanent Secretaries of HM Treasury
Sustainability advocates
Trustees of the British Museum
World Bank Chief Economists
Life peers created by Elizabeth II