MAINE PUBLIC • February 8, 2023
The social cost of carbon adds up all the damage from carbon emissions – the lost crops, flooded homes and lost wages when people can't safely work outside, plus the cost of climate-related deaths. The answer is expressed in dollars. The current social cost of carbon is $51 per ton of carbon dioxide emitted. Most climate experts agree that number is too low. That's a problem because it can make it seem like the costs of climate solutions – such as the immediate price tag for building more public transit or expanding wind energy – outweigh the benefits, when in fact many of the benefits to humanity are simply being underestimated. The Environmental Protection Agency agrees that $51 is too low, and proposes more than tripling it to $190. But the EPA didn't assign the same dollar value to every life. Instead, a life lost in a lower-income country due to climate change is worth less than a life lost in a higher-income country.