Photo by Paxson Woelber on Unsplash
Country-level Social Cost of Carbon
Abstract
The social cost of carbon (SCC) is a commonly employed metric of the expected economic damages expected from carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. Although useful in an optimal policy context, a world-level approach obscures the heterogeneous geography of climate damage and vast differences in country-level contributions to the global SCC, as well as climate and socio-economic uncertainties, which are larger at the regional level. Here we estimate country-level contributions to the SCC using recent climate model projections, empirical climate-driven economic damage estimations and socio-economic projections. Central specifications show high global SCC values (median, $417 per tonne of CO2 (tCO2); 66% confidence intervals, US$177–805 per tCO2) and a country-level SCC that is unequally distributed. However, the relative ranking of countries is robust to different specifications: countries that incur large fractions of the global cost consistently include India, China, Saudi Arabia and the United States.
Github
This paper has a repository at https://country-level-scc.github.io.
Online explorer
In this study, we have generated the Social Cost of Carbon of all countries using different socio-economic, climatic or damage assumptions. This is a large database. So, I developed an online interactive tool to explore it. This tool is available at https://country-level-scc.github.io/explorer.
The Country-level Social Cost of Carbon explorer
Selection of Media Coverage
- Ars Technica: The US would suffer some of the biggest costs of climate change
- European Scientist: Country-level social cost of climate change: US and China among the countries most affected
- Gizmodo: Carbon Emissions Could Be Costing the US 8 Times What Trump’s EPA Estimates
- Grist: Psst, Trump. Acting on climate change is a great deal for the U.S.
- The Guardian: New study finds incredibly high carbon pollution costs – especially for the US and India
- Inside Climate News: Climate Change Will Cost U.S. More in Economic Damage Than Any Other Country But One
- Minnesota Public Radio News: Study: Social cost of carbon emissions much higher than what U.S. is using
- Nature: The costs of climate inaction
- MIT Technology Review: The one number you need to know about climate change
- Times of India: Research finds India stands to lose most from climate change
- Vox: Climate change is a global injustice. A new study shows why.