Despite Some Economists’ Best Attempts – The Cost Of Climate Change Can’t Be Boiled Down To One Right Number, Here’s Why
A group of economists has issued a new estimate of the future cost of climate change that is grabbing headlines. The consultancy Deloitte estimates that unchecked climate change could cost the global economy US$178 trillion over the next 50 years.
While climate change does harm economies, there are a lot of problems with long-term estimates like this.
New technologies arrive and evolve. Human behaviors shift. For example, who would have thought before the COVID-19 pandemic that a large percentage of the population would stop driving to the office and work from home instead?
I am a microeconomist who investigates the causes and consequences of climate change. When I think about the climate change challenge in 2040 and beyond, I anticipate many “known unknowns” about our future. Thus, I a...