Study: Climate Change to Cost World $38T Every Year
The Facts
According to a study by Germany's Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, climate change will result in a 19% reduction in income globally over the next 25 years.
The study, published in the journal Nature on Wednesday, forecasts the annual economic cost of climate change to the global economy to reach $38T by 2049.
The Spin
Narrative A
While policies that address and work to combat climate change-causing carbon emissions will likely impact the global economy and may have very little yield in the short term, these policies are a crucial investment in our future. They will save billions of dollars in future damages and pay off in the long run. Any delay to these policies will only further hurt the global economy.
Narrative B
While a shift to clean energy is often touted as an essential part of addressing the carbon emissions that cause global warming, it's certainly not the only solution or best suited solution to protect our future economy. This costly industrial shift is not economically sustainable without expensive government subsidies and often leads to cutting more jobs than it creates. Economic policies shouldn't be driven by climate rhetoric.