Annual Damages From Global Warming To Planet's Oceans +/- $2 Trillion (Fisheries, Reefs, Infrastructure)
The global cost of greenhouse gas emissions are nearly double what scientists previously thought, according to a study published Thursday by researchers at the University of California San Diego’s Scripps Institution of Oceanography. It is the first time a social cost of carbon (SCC) assessment—a key measure of economic harm caused by climate change—has included damages to the ocean. Global coral loss, fisheries disruption and coastal infrastructure destruction are estimated to cost nearly $2 trillion annually, fundamentally changing how we measure climate finance.
“For decades, we’ve been estimating the economic cost of climate change while effectively assigning a value of zero to the ocean,” said Bernardo Bastien-Olvera, who led the study during his postdoctoral fellowship at Scripps. “Ocean loss is not just an environmental issue, but a central part of the economic story of climate change.”
The social cost of carbon is an accounting method for working out the monetary cost of each ton of carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere. “[It] is one of the most efficient tools we have for internalizing climate damages into economic decision-making,” said Amy Campbell, a United Nations climate advisor and former British government COP negotiator.
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The study, which began in 2021, brought together scientists from multiple disciplines: Fisheries experts, coral reef researchers, biologists and climate economists. They assessed downstream climate change costs across four key sectors—corals, mangroves, fisheries and seaports—measuring everything from straightforward market loss of reduced fisheries and marine trade to reductions in ocean-based recreational industries.
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https://insideclimatenews.org/news/15012026/ocean-damage-nearly-doubles-the-cost-of-climate-change/