Ignoring Climate Change Just Got More Expensive

The costs of climate change – maintaining and insuring infrastructure, industry preparation, property damages and losses – are climbing. William Nordhaus of Yale University has updated his model for studying the effects of climate change on the global economy in an “era of minimal climate policies.” In short, the world is not doing enough to stem or prepare for climate change. “Even after adjusting for uncertainty, he writes, there is ‘virtually no chance’ that nations will prevent the world from warming more than 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 Fahrenheit), the upper bound for avoiding cascading catastrophes,” writes Eric Roston about Nordhaus’s work. “Here’s why the research is so consequential. DICE is one of three major ‘integrated assessment models’ used by governments and the private sector to estimate the cost, in today’s dollars, of the damage climate change will cause. Comments of the incoming Trump transition suggest a disdain for climate science, modeling and estimates that aid in preparation, but as Roston concludes, ignoring data will put the United States behind the rest of the world in terms of research and won’t make the warming world go away. – YaleGlobal