AFP: Some 400 scientists and climate experts expressed support yesterday for a US government proposal to revise a key metric that estimates the damage from carbon dioxide emissions.
The number in question is the social cost of carbon and it represents the dollar value of the climate change harm attributable to a metric ton of carbon dioxide.
It is a way to evaluate the negative economic, labor and health consequences of CO2 emissions, calculated as the difference between the cost of reducing those emissions and the damages prevented by the reductions.
In the United States, the figure has for years formed part of cost-benefit analyses for everything from power plant regulations to efficiency standards for cars and household appliances.
It considers future illness and deaths from heat waves, small particle pollution, climate-enhanced natural disasters, property damage, reductions in agricultural production, disruption to energy systems, predicted violent conflicts and mass migration. US President Joe Biden, shortly after taking office in January 2021, restored the social cost of carbon figure to Obama-era levels, after the Trump administration had slashed it to a nominal amount.