HOW EXPENSIVE IS IT TO FIGHT CLIMATE CHANGE?

Numerous studies over the decades have explored that question. Germany has a clear answer: A study by the Federal Industrial Agency estimates it will take total investments of $2.56 trillion by 2050—which breaks down to almost $85 billion per year. The situation in the United States is far more nebulous. In the spring of 2015 the Obama Administration had formally committed to reducing greenhouse gas emissions by up to 28% below 2005 levels by the year 2025 as part of a laudable objective of reducing climate-devastating emissions by 80% or more by 2050. The current administration, however, has announced that the U.S. will officially withdraw from the Paris Climate Agreement on the day following the 2020 election if President Trump is re-elected, which puts any meaningful action in doubt. In 2006 the UK government released the Stern Review on the Economics of Climate Change, a 700-page report on the effects of global warming on the world economy. The report stated that the cost of reducing emissions could be as little as 1% of global GDP if immediate action were taken. But in the absence of action, that could rise over time to more than 20% of GDP. If that’s true, the worldwide cost in 2020 terms would be more than $17 trillion annually.