The Sticky Truth about Economic Growth and Climate Change - Scientific American Blog Network

Coal workers will need re-tooling to transition to a sustainable economy. Credit: PhotoDisc/Getty Images.

Why We Need to Talk About the Costs of Mitigation

That averting climate change will save us money should be a tautology, but for reasons including entrenched interests, it is not. The pre-cautionary principle alone would tell us that we do not want to learn what costs climate change will incur, so better to pay a small premium to avoid the risk at all. Instead, calculated estimates pin the cost of avoiding catastrophic effects from climate change at something like 1% of global GDP. So who will pay for it, and who loses from a more sustainable economy?

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