Barron's: "The Damage from Carbon Is More Costly Than We Thought"
An op-ed written by RFF scholars Maureen Cropper, Richard Newell, Brian Prest, and Kevin Rennert discusses the significance of new findings that the social cost of carbon is $185 per ton.
The key finding of the study pegs the social cost of carbon at $185 per ton of CO2—more than triple the government’s current estimate. This finding indicates that many experts and decision makers have been consistently underestimating the economic effects of carbon emissions for years. It also shows, however, that actions taken by governments and corporations to reduce emissions have far greater economic benefits than previously understood. Now we’d estimate a 10-million-ton emissions cut would usher in $1.85 billion of societal benefits. For decision makers crunching numbers, this research casts a whole range of policy proposals in a new light.
