Climate Change: $266 Trillion to Fight Global Warming Is a No-Brainer - Bloomberg
Climate Change: $266 Trillion to Fight Global Warming Is a No-Brainer - Bloomberg
$266 Trillion in Climate Spending Is a No-Brainer
Without the investment, the alternative is $2.3 quadrillion in accumulated damage by the end of the century.
It’s going to cost a lot to get this in check.Photographer: Ethan Swope/Bloomberg
Humanity largely agrees climate change is an existential threat to civilization. You can bet global leaders will harrumph as much again at the big United Nations climate confab in Dubai this winter. At the same time, these leaders also lavish roughly four times more on the fossil fuels heating the planet than they spend fighting the existential threat. Maybe our priorities are just a bit skewed?
Global investment in climate-related projects averaged nearly $1.3 trillion a year in 2021 and 2022, the nonprofit advisory group Climate Policy Initiative estimated recently, almost double the rate of such spending in 2019 and 2020. 1 Unfortunately, that’s about the extent of the happy takeaways from CPI’s report. (Full disclosure: CPI is partially funded by Bloomberg Philanthropies.)
Related Knowledge Center: Climate economics
Climate change is now a driver of the world’s economy. The impact is profound:
- Catastrophic weather events — hurricanes, floods, droughts, high temperatures — are more frequent and more extreme. The cost can be measured in both the initial damage caused and the longer-term impact on the economy.
- Vulnerable communities are increasing climate-related investments, hardening infrastructure and taking other protective measures.
- Investment in carbon capture and storage technologies is increasingly rapidly.
- Governments are making investments and crafting regulations to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases.
On top of all of this is the cost of uncertainty. As the Fourth National Climate Assessment, released in 2018 by the U.S. Global Change Research Program, says, “The assumption that current and future climate conditions will resemble the recent past is no longer valid.”