Mitigation targets = US$ 30 trillion savings

New research published in the journal Nature by Burke, et al.  entitled Large potential reduction in economic damages under UN mitigation targets reveals that by achieving the mitigation targets set out in the Paris Agreement, the world will save US$ 30 trillion in economic damages.

The authors quantified the damages associated with the United Nations targets of 1.5 °C and 2 °C temperature increases as well as the current national mitigation commitments (almost 3°C) in part by combining historical evidence with national-level climate and socioeconomic projections. The authors state that “achieving the 1.5 °C target is likely to reduce aggregate damages and lessen global inequality, and that failing to meet the 2 °C target is likely to increase economic damages substantially.”

According to an article about the research in The Guardian, other researchers applaud the work, acknowledge the difficulty in translating the impacts of climate change into economic damages, mention the importance of outlining assumptions made in the research which the authors did, and highlight that a high priority for future work should be pinning down just how large the effects of climate will be on the long-term growth of GDP. So, it’s a good start, there’s more work to be done, and it remains clear that continued work towards achieving aggressive climate change mitigation targets will make a difference!