Economic Damages of the Climate Crisis

By Rachel Max ‘24
    Research from the Swiss Re Institute estimates that the global economy’s total value could decrease by 10% if the Paris Agreement and 2050 net-zero emissions targets are not met.

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The Paris Agreement is an international climate change treaty signed by 196 countries on December 12, 2015. It’s a long-term plan that works in a 5-year cycle. The first step officially took place in 2020 when each country submitted its plans for mitigating the climate crisis. The next step is to take place in 2024 with the establishment of an enhanced transparency framework (ETF). Countries involved with the agreement will report to the ETF to track progress and provide support.
    The steps taken in relation to the Paris Agreement are helping achieve the 2050 net-zero emission target. The target is for all the countries that pledged to this goal to have their carbon emissions reduced dramatically to the point where we hit a net-zero.
    Both these projects are long-term plans which at a glance seem as though they are going to stop the disaster before it begins, but that's not necessarily true. In the past few years already we’ve experienced some of the devastating consequences of the climate crisis. 
In 2018 the Fourth National Climate Assessment was published by the U.S. Global Change Research Group, which warned that if we do not get a handle on greenhouse gas emissions, climate change could seriously affect the U.S. economy in many ways. 
Warmer temperatures, rising sea levels, and extreme weather can damage property and human health as well as productivity. It could also have negative impacts on industries such as agriculture, forestry, fisheries, and tourism. 
    As of 2019, extreme rainfalls in the Midwest have increased by 37% from 1950 and in that same year elevated amounts of rain and snow caused historic flooding which had damages costing hundreds of millions to billions of dollars. These damages also affected the agricultural industry as the destroyed fields and killed livestock drove up the price of food products. 
    As of now, scientists estimate that we will hit an irreversible and dangerous level of damage at some point between 2027-2052, with some studies suggesting that we have even less time.

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