On Friday, President Biden raised the social cost of carbon, a little-known but important number that reports on a wide range of policies governing industry and energy production. Mr. Biden’s action restores the number to the price of the Obama era and restores a working group that calculates the economic impact of pollution.
The social cost of carbon is an estimate of the long-term damage, in dollars, of carbon to our environment. Former President Trump disbanded the Interagency Working Group (IWG) that determined the number in 2017 and directed agencies to drastically devalue the social cost of carbon. Biden’s announcement restores the IWG and causes the cost of carbon to recover to $ 51 per tonne of carbon dioxide.
That number, however, was resolved by IWG before the group disbanded in 2017 and does not reflect “recent developments in the science and economics” of climate change, according to a technical support paper released Friday by the working group. Now, the IWG has taken it upon itself to recalculate the social cost of carbon, as well as the social cost of other greenhouse gases, and provide an updated number in January 2022.
“A more complete update that follows the best science takes time. Therefore, we will quickly restore previous estimates as a temporary step,” Heather Boushey, a member of the president’s Board of Economic Advisers, said in a White House statement in name of IWG co-chairs. “With these temporarily established estimates, the inter-agency working group will continue its critical work to evaluate and incorporate the latest research in climate and economics and will respond to the recommendations of national academies as we develop a more complete review of the estimates for publish within a course. “
Activists and experts say the number must be significantly higher if the United States is to meet its commitments under the Paris Agreement, a climate treaty dedicated to reducing greenhouse gas emissions by more than 180. countries of the world. Trump withdrew from the deal in 2020 and Biden he re-entered the post on the first day.
Professor Joe Stiglitz of Columbia University and Professor Lord Nicholas Stern of the London School of Economics and Political Science said in a statement earlier this month that Biden’s decision to quickly get rid of the “reasonable estimate “of the Trump administration was” understandable, “but” flawed. ” Stiglitz and Stern claim that the US must double the Obama-era figure to $ 100 per tonne of carbon dioxide “in order to ensure that policies and regulations are in line with the goals of the Paris Agreement “.
“The low value adopted by the Obama Administration was based on the production of economic models that are known to be inadequate and ignore the most important potential impacts of climate change,” they wrote. “We are confident that the Biden Administration will conduct a comprehensive assessment of the social cost of carbon before publishing its final value assessment next year.”
Other experts believe the cost should be up to $ 125 per tonne, as New York State estimated last year.
“As this process progresses, we are committed to collaborating with the public and the various stakeholders, seeking the advice of ethics experts and working to ensure that the social cost of greenhouse gases is taken into account. climate risk, environmental justice and intergenerational equity “. White House Declaration. “The result will be even stronger science-based estimates developed through a transparent and robust process.”