Fighting Climate Change A Financial Necessity

Climate Change is often framed primarily as an environmental issue. It is a massive problem for the environment, threatening to destroy habitats and wipe out species. This is reason enough to fight it, but there is also another entire set of financial impacts that are extremely costly. Some of the biggest ways that climate change will impact the economy are.

1. Impacts on productivity: A temperature rise of just 1.5 degrees is estimated to reduce global working hours by 2.2%, costing the global economy $2.4 trillion. Worsened air pollution would also have severe health impacts, causing massive increases in heart disease, strokes, and cancer. The cost to treat these conditions is projected to exceed 800 billion.
2. Damages to assets: With an increase in frequency and intensity of extreme weather events such as hurricanes, the 300 billion damage they cause per year will only increase. Rising sea levels are also catastrophic, threatening to wipe out entire communities and potentially causing $500 billion in damage a year under more extreme scenarios.
3. Disruptions to production: Climate change will also decimate certain industries. Some fish populations will shrink significantly, impacting fishermen and the coastal communities that rely on the oceans. Farmland may become less suited for agriculture, hurting farmers and driving up food prices.
4. Reduced investment: A higher share of investment will need to go towards repairing and adapting to climate change-related damages. This means that there is less investment going towards things that improve people’s lives, causing GDP to drop and household incomes to fall by up to 18% in a high-emissions scenario according to the Canadian Climate Institute.

These economic costs are estimated at $1,266 trillion and will cause immense harm, especially when compounded with the loss of nature and decreased health and well-being. That is why it is so important that action is taken now to minimize these costs. You can act by considering our sustainable Anorra turbines here.