Until 8 p.m. includes Twin Cities area

MPR News helps you turn down the noise and build shared understanding. Turn up your support for this public resource and keep trusted journalism accessible to all. 

Turn Up Your Support

With time running out to head off the worst damage from climate change, the United States government is starting to quantify the cost of inaction – for taxpayers.

The White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) released the first ever accounting of how unchecked global warming would impact the federal budget, looking at its potential to dampen the economy as a whole, and balloon the costs of climate-related programs over time.

"The fiscal risk of climate change is immense," wrote Candace Vahlsing, Associate Director for Climate, Energy, Environment, and Science at OMB, and Danny Yagan, Chief Economist at OMB, in 

OMB plans to calculate and release these estimates annually, as directed by President Biden in an

. The analysis, while new, credits prior work by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the Congressional Budget Office.

"It's kickstarting the government doing this," said Margaret Walls, Director of the Climate Risks and Impacts Program at Resources for the Future, a Washington research group. But, she continued, "it's imperfect." 

Walls said she would like to see the government include the climate costs of safety net programs, such as unemployment insurance, in future versions.

Other groups are tracking the financial benefits of tackling climate change. Keeping warming within 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) would generate more economic benefit globally than the cost of achieving that goal,

 according to the most recent report from the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change

All of these efforts attempt to put a price tag on doing nothing.

"I think it will draw a lot more attention to the tradeoffs that come from acting on or ignoring climate change," said Jeremy Symons, project manager of the Climate 21 Project, which brought together more than 150 experts to create a blueprint for how President Biden can tackle climate change. He said the OMB analysis was heartening, because it showed that even modest emissions reductions could lead to much smaller spending increases for programs like wildland fire suppression and coastal disasters.

After failing to get climate change legislation passed as a part of Build Back Better, the Biden administration is now asking for $44.9 billion in the fiscal year 2023 federal budget, towards its climate goals. That includes $15 billion for clean energy investment and infrastructure, and another $18 billion for climate resilience. 


Since Congress controls the federal purse strings, that budget is simply a proposal.


Business and Economic News

Politics and Government News

Environmental News

Climate

Laura Benshoff

Author

The federal government has begun tallying the damage climate change could do to the economy and its budget. This comes as scientists warn time is running out to avoid catastrophic global warming.

The future cost of climate inaction? $2 trillion a year, says the government

Go Deeper.

Like this?

News you can use in your inbox