Analysis Shows Effective Action on Climate Change Will Have Little Impact on U.S. Economy
A cap-and-trade policy to cut global warming pollution is consistent with U.S. long-term economic growth, according to economic models in a recent study by the Environmental Defense Fund.
A cap-and-trade policy to cut global warming pollution is consistent with U.S. long-term economic growth, according to economic models in a recent study by the Environmental Defense Fund.
The anticipated cost of reducing greenhouse gas emissions on the U.S. economy is small and difficult to measure against projected economic growth, the study finds.
The study,
“What Will it Cost to Protect Ourselves From Global Warming?” is a comprehensive analysis of the leading economic modeling of cap and trade legislation to combat climate change.
The U.S. economy has grown nearly three percent per year on average in the post-war period, and that growth is projected to continue. If the U.S. capped its greenhouse gas emissions, the projected median impact of that cap on growth would be 0.03 percent, the analysis finds.
Other key findings of the analysis include:
- The overall cost of capping greenhouse gases for the average American family will amount to less than 1 percent of household budgets over the next two decades.
- The total number of jobs impacted by climate policy in the manufacturing sector over 20 years is substantially below the number of jobs created and destroyed in the sector every three months.
- Household electricity and natural gas bills rise by only a few dollars a month over the next few decades — well within the rise and fall homeowners already experience.
The study focuses on cap-and-trade programs that would cut U.S. emissions by 60 percent or more below current levels by the year 2050. The analyses surveyed were performed by the Energy Information Agency, Research Triangle Institute, Harvard, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Pacific Northwest National Laboratories.
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