Former Mexican President Felipe Calderdon and the international titans of business and finance will be at the United Nations on Tuesday to brief delegates about a new report that shows that much-needed action on climate change is perfectly compatible with economic growth – and failing to act will be calamitous.

The New Climate Economy report was compiled by a global commission, which includes Calderon; Unilever chief executive Paul Polman; Bank of America chairman Chad Holloway; and economist Nicholas Stern.  These aren’t the usual tree-hugging, Birkenstock-wearing environmentalists – these folks are “the establishment”.  But all nations have to get off their duffs and get to work on cutting pollution to keep the global temperature from rising uncontrollably.

“The next 15 years are absolutely critical,” said New Climate Economy program director project Jeremy Oppenheim.  “People always tend to make the case for urgency,” he added, “But the science in this case, leaving all rhetoric aside, makes it extraordinarily clear we have a 15-year window to change the underlying current premise.”

This is the latest in a series of findings from staid, conservative groups that bolster the need for immediate climate action.  These reports foresee serious consequences ahead, including food security threats, coastal inundation, extreme weather events, ecosystem shifts, and widespread species extinction.

Accounting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers (button-down collars and pinstripes, no tie-dyes allowed) last month said that the world has about 20 years to go before an irreversible climate disaster (pdf link).  Its emotionless bean-counters project a global temperature rise of 7.2 degrees Fahrenheit of warming by the end of the century, and recommends cutting carbon emissions by more than six percent per year through the end of the century just to keep the rise to half of that.

Last October, a group of former US Republican Party heavyweights put out a report called Risky Business, which argued that ignoring the reality of climate change is economic folly.