The “social cost of carbon” represents how much it will cost to remove the CO2 we are pumping into the atmosphere. It’s like the national debt, which can prevent future generations from thriving. In 2019, global emissions were 33 gigatonnes, according to the International Energy Agency. Based on recent research by the SIPA Center on Global Energy Policy at Columbia University in New York, the social cost of removing and repairing the damage done by a ton of carbon emitted in 2019 was between $77 and $124 in 2018 dollars.
So, you think the U.S. national debt is bad? The annual global social cost of CO2 emissions was $4.5 trillion. And those costs will only rise until CO2 levels decline from today’s 417 parts per million.
Think what your grandchildren will say when they have paid our debts.
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