For the past few years, climate economists have employed a concept called the “social cost of carbon” to measure the dollar value of the damage i

How Much Will It Cost to Prevent Deaths by Climate-Driven Heat?

submited by

Style Pass

2021-07-31 05:00:03

For the past few years, climate economists have employed a concept called the “social cost of carbon” to measure the dollar value of the damage inflicted by adding each ton of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere. In February, the White House announced that government officials will consider the social cost of carbon in crafting new environmental regulations.

Now a researcher has come up with a mortality cost of carbon, which encompasses the toll from climate-related heat deaths. The new paper, published today in the journal Nature Communications, estimates that we would have to prevent 4,434 metric tons of carbon dioxide from being released into the atmosphere to save one life. That amount equals the lifetime carbon emissions produced by 3.5 Americans.

Daniel Bressler, a graduate student in sustainable development at Columbia University and the study’s author, estimates that 74 million lives would be saved globally from heat-related deaths if the world’s economies could “decarbonize”—i.e., eliminate carbon emissions—by 2050. “There is a significant number of lives that can be saved by reducing emissions—at the scale of individuals, at the scale of companies, at the scale of nations, and globally,” says Bressler.