Research – climate change / Damages will reach up to 38 trillion. dollars annually until 2050

The damages to crops, them infrastructuresthe productivity and health from climate change they will cost up to 38 trillion dollars annually until 2050 and this amount is almost certain to increase as more is emitted from human activity gases which cause it greenhouse effectaccording to research released Wednesday, according to Reuters.

The economic impacts of climate change are not fully understood and economists often disagree about their extent.

The Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) study, backed by the German government, stands out because of the seriousness of its findings. It is calculated, among other things, that climate change will reduce by 17% of global GDP by the middle of the century.

“The world’s population is poorer than it would be without climate change,” said Leonie Wentz, a climate data researcher and co-author of the study. “It costs us much less to protect the climate than to not do it,” he added.

The cost of measures to limit global warming to 2 degrees Celsius, compared to pre-industrial temperatures, is estimated to reach 6 trillion dollars by 2050. That amount would be less than one-sixth the cost of the damage that would be caused if warming exceeded that level, according to the study.

Although previous studies have concluded that climate change will benefit the economies of some countries, the PIK finds that almost everyone will suffer – and poor, developing countries will be hit hardest. The damage assessment is based on forecasts for the temperature and them rainfall. They are not taken into account extreme weather conditions and others disasters relating to climate, such as the forest fires and the sea ​​level rise. It is also based only on current emissions, although their volume continues to rise to record levels.

Governments are not only spending little to curb emissions of the gases that cause warming but also lag behind in spending on climate change adaptation.

In this study, researchers compared temperatures and rainfall in more than 1,600 areas the latest 40 years and examined the costs of these phenomena. They then used climate model predictions to estimate future damage. If emissions of gases continue at their current rate and the average global temperature rises above 4 degrees Celsiusthe estimated financial loss after the 2050 will rise to 60% of income by 2100. Limiting temperature increase to 2 degrees would reduce these losses to 20%, on average.