Climate Crisis Could Cost $38 Trillion a Year by 2050; Prevention Much Cheaper

Damage to farming, infrastructure, productivity, and health from climate change will cost an estimated $38 trillion per year by mid-century, according to a German government-backed study, Riham Alkousaa reported for Reuters. Yet less than a sixth of that amount is all it would cost to limit global warming to within 2 degrees Celsius (3.6F) of pre-industrial temperatures, according to the study. In the same time frame, climate change will shave 17% off the global economy’s GDP. “The world population is poorer than it would be without climate change,” said study co-author Leonie Wenz. “It costs us much less to protect the climate than not to.”