According to a research released on Thursday, the U.S. government significantly underestimates the societal cost of carbon dioxide emissions, which is 3.6 times higher than the estimate currently used to guide many of Washington’s important climate initiatives.
Since carbon dioxide is the main greenhouse gas contributing to global warming, it has a detrimental effect on people’s quality of life. The ‘social cost’ is calculated by American economists in dollars, taking into account effects like altered agricultural output, harm from sea level rise, and deteriorating human health.
According to the U.S., this cost is currently estimated to be $51 per metric tonne, an amount that, after being adjusted for inflation, dates back to the Obama administration. But in research published Thursday in the journal Nature, a team of American scientists say the reality of such damages is likely far greater, at $185 per tonne.
According to co-author and economist Brian Prest of Resources for the Future, ‘greater estimates of the societal cost inspire more ambitious reduction of greenhouse gas emissions.’
The societal cost number is used by the U.S. federal government to set rules for emissions from cars, power plants, and household appliances. Additionally, it serves as the foundation for federal tax credits for carbon capture and storage, subsidies for nuclear power plants that emit zero emissions, and planned federal carbon tax legislation.
The federal government, however, came under fire from a 2017 report by the U.S. National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine for utilising out-of-date data to estimate the effects of greenhouse gas emissions.
Post Your Comments