This was part of Confronting Climate Change

Using climate econometrics to update the social cost of carbon

Tamma Carleton, University of California, Santa Barbara

Thursday, March 4, 2021



Abstract: Estimating the global marginal damages caused by emitting a single ton of carbon dioxide is central to climate policy. However, current measurements of this “social cost of carbon” are based on low-resolution structural models that are not empirically calibrated. In this talk, I will present a new approach from the Climate Impact Lab that combines best-available data, econometrics, and climate science to both update the social cost of carbon and provide climate damage estimates for individual sectors of the economy at local level. Our results contrast starkly with the current estimates of climate damages informing US climate policy.