Climate Economics

CLI's Climate Economics program offers policymakers and private-sector leaders credible analysis and tools to understand the economic costs and benefits of the consequences and solutions to global warming.

Left unchecked, global warming and the climatic changes it produces will profoundly affect the global, national and regional economies. Even modest temperature increases will have economic consequences.

Governments, private firms, and households will need to respond to these challenges on at least two fronts. First, greenhouse gas emissions must be reduced to levels necessary to eventually re-stabilize the climate (mitigation). Second, while the decades-long restabilization occurs, society must prepare for and adapt to some level of climate change that no longer can be avoided (preparedness). Mitigation and preparedness have associated costs, but both also offer opportunities for new ways of providing goods and services along with the jobs and enhanced economic security they can produce.

Research by ECONorthwest, with assistance from CLI and economists across the US, has shown that a business as usual approach to climate change could have serious economic consequences. Three reports, one each for Oregon, Washington, and New Mexico, were released in February 2009 and provide critical state-specific information to help families, businesses, and communities better understand the nature of the economic threats that climate change poses over the next several decades. 

CLI seeks to help policymakers from all sectors of society make informed decisions about these issues through credible, timely analysis and the development of new tools and approaches to climate economics. The program is supported by a steering committee of economists from academia and the private sector from across the West.