Brussels, 19/04/2005 (Agence Europe) - On Monday in Washington, the European Commissioner for the environment Stavros Dimas, the president of the Environment Council Lucien Lux and Lord Whitty speaking on behalf of the future British presidency appealed to the Under Secretary of State for global affairs, Paula Dobriansky, to step up the fight against climate change. Mr Dimas asserted that climate change and sustainable development were major priorities. The Luxembourg minister for the environment Lucien Lux said in a speech at the Brooking Institute that he was keen on demonstrating that damage caused by climate change in the long and short term cost much more than measures that could be taken to fight the phenomenon. Mr Lux said that according to “scientists and even insurance companies, the cost of climate protection is ten times lower than the costs of damages to be expected if no action is taken”. He added that, “the German Institute for Economic research has estimated the damages to the economy of a global warming of only 1 degree Celsius up to yearly 200 billion US Dollars by 2050…it seems the last hurricane season in Florida caused damages as high as 25 billion dollars. That's half of industrialised countries' expenses for developing countries”.