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The cost of changes in energy use in a warming world

How will global energy usage change as Earth warms? Modelling now suggests that there will be a modest net decrease in energy consumption — but probably at the expense of human well-being in many regions.
  1. Katrina Jessoe

    1. Katrina Jessoe is in the Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics, University of California, Davis, Davis, California 95616, USA.

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  2. Frances C. Moore

    1. Frances C. Moore is in the Department of Environmental Science and Policy, University of California, Davis, Davis, California 95616, USA.

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Climate change affects many things: the food we grow, human health, the productivity of workers, migration decisions, conflicts and violence, ecosystem services and the amount of energy we consume1,2. These disparate and diverse effects are difficult to quantify, particularly in economic terms. Nevertheless, such an evaluation is crucial for analyses of climate and energy policies. US federal agencies, for instance, are required to perform a cost–benefit analysis of all their regulations. For climate and energy policies, this requires them to put a price on carbon dioxide emissions. One measure of this is the social cost of carbon (SCC) — an evaluation of the future costs of emitting one extra tonne of CO2 into the atmosphere, taking into account all the effects of climate change.

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Nature 598, 262-263 (2021)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-021-02721-1

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Competing Interests

The authors declare no competing interests.

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