Climate Change will harm the economy
Beyond the avoidable sickness, suffering and death caused by climate change, economists warn that the cost of climate inaction will exceed the cost of climate action. Transitioning to renewable energy, including wind, solar, tidal, and geothermal, would reduce climate risks while creating new industries, green jobs, and lead to a stronger and more resilient economy.
Cost of Climate Inaction
Climate change and extreme weather events will continue to increase inflation and raise the price of goods and services. While most people are already struggling to keep up with the rising prices of food, housing, energy, and gas, climate change will drive up prices even more.
Food prices will rise as crops are increasingly damaged and destroyed by worsening droughts, floods, and extreme heat. Infrastructure damaged by extreme heat and weather events may result in higher taxes for repair. And workers will likely become less productive as heat-waves and extreme weather events make outdoor work dangerous and limit our ability to think and cooperate as effectively.
Extreme weather, worsening wildfires, rising sea levels, and coastal flooding are pushing up the cost of house insurance. Some insurance companies reduced their coverage or will no longer insure residents living in areas prone to wildfires, flooding, and other climate-related disasters. As climate risks increase, more communities may be unable to find or afford insurance.
New research estimates that climate damages could cost the global economy up to $38 trillion per year by 2050 if sweeping, rapid action isn’t taken.
Financial Benefits of Climate Action
Addressing climate change would strengthen our economy and help maintain the environmental and planetary conditions necessary for a stable and flourishing society and global civilization.
Investing in renewable energy creates jobs and reduces dependence on volatile fossil fuel markets, which are affected by geopolitical conflicts, competition over resources, trade routes, and global power dynamics.
Ending our reliance on fossil fuels, along with protecting ecosystems, would reduce healthcare costs associated with global warming and environmental destruction. The burning of coal, oil, and natural gas is directly linked to increased rates of asthma, cardiovascular disease, dangerous heat exposure, the spread of insect-borne diseases, and more.
Acting on climate change would also prevent massive economic costs associated with climate disasters and rising temperatures. The transition away from fossil fuels is not only an environmental necessity — it is an economic opportunity.
Rethinking Economic Growth
Many scientists and economists believe that addressing climate change and ecological breakdown requires rethinking our economy. We cannot keep extracting more resources for production and consumption than Earth can safely and realistically regenerate. Our energy system also can’t continue to rely on fossil fuels that produce heat-trapping emissions and harm our health and the health of critical ecosystems.
Recognizing that earth’s resources are finite and that under capitalism planetary boundaries are being breached, some researchers argue that humanity needs to transition to a regenerative, circular economy. Regenerative and circular economies are sustainable and reuse materials, reduce waste, and protect the air, water, and land.
Even if society transitioned to 100% renewable energy, the ecological crisis would continue if we fail to protect the ecosystems humanity depends on for clean drinking water, nutritious food, biodiversity, and healthy oceans. Climate change is one part of a larger planetary crisis caused by the destruction of natural systems that sustain life.
More Reading
Sierra Club, Another end of the world is possible
Kate Raworth, Doughnut Economics by Kate Raworth
Club of Rome, The Limits to Growth
University of Chicago, Climate change may cost $38 trillion a year by 2049, study says
