One of the main reasons why the governments aren’t rushing to take action on climate change is because of the considerable economic costs of doing so. However, new research that examined future costs of dealing with a warming planet reveals how wrong that mindset is because, in the long run, we will have to pay more the longer we wait to take action. The research is published in the journal Nature Communications.
According to the calculations in the research, paying what it takes to keep the global temperature from rising over the next century to 2 degrees Celsius is currently the cheapest option we have.
“To secure economic welfare for all people in these times of global warming, we need to balance the costs of climate change damages and those of climate change mitigation,” explained Anders Levermann, a climate scientist from Germany’s Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research.
Levermann and his team used a computer simulation program called DICE (the Dynamic Integrated Climate-Economy). The program, developed by the Nobel Laureate of Economics, William Nordhaus, was specifically built to investigate the impacts of climate change.
The program weighed up the costs of cutting greenhouse gas emissions (by reduction of coal use) against the costs of increased climate change, including weather disasters. There are several variables to keep in mind, including how the impact climate change will have on conflicts around the globe, how the consumption patterns may alter, and the effects of tipping points that we haven’t considered yet.
In conclusion, the program calculated that our cheapest option is to stop warming at 2 degrees Celsius. “It is remarkable how robustly reasonable the temperature limit of more or less 2 degrees C is, standing out in almost all the cost curves we’ve produced,” said Sven Willner, also a climate scientist from PIK.
Levermann explained:
The world is running out of excuses to justify sitting back and doing nothing. All those who have been saying that climate stabilization would be nice but is too costly can see now that it is really unmitigated global warming that is too expensive. We either decarbonize our economies, or we let global warming fire up costs for businesses and societies worldwide.
The researchers highlight that “fast and fundamental global action” is essential to slow rising temperatures around the world. Procrastinating is only going to make the situation worse and more expensive.
