Oct. 27 (Bloomberg) -- The cost of cutting greenhouse gas emissions to avoid the impact of climate change may amount to 3 percent of the world’s economic output, said Rajendra Pachauri, the chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

“The cost to the global economy in 2030, so that’s 21 years from now, will be no more than 3 percent of the global GDP,” he told the CarbonExpo Australasia conference on the Gold Coast, Australia today via video link.

Governments from around the world will meet in Copenhagen starting Dec. 7 for the final round of talks on a climate accord to replace the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, which expires in 2012. The negotiations are being run by the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change. The world can only afford to have carbon emissions rise for another six years to avoid “catastrophes” from global warming, said Pachauri, chairman of the panel that shared the Nobel Peace Prize with former U.S. Vice President Al Gore in 2007.

“We have no choice but to see that collectively global emissions of greenhouse gases are brought down as rapidly as possible,” he said. “By 2015, we have to ensure that we reach a peak and beyond that year, we should bring about the reduction.”

To contact the reporter on this story: Ben Sharples in Melbourne at bsharples@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: October 26, 2009 21:26 EDT