Economic toll of climate change: This is how much money could be lost by 2060

A recent study led by Professor Dabo Guan of University College London’s Bartlett School of Sustainable Construction has pointed out that the direct economical damage of climate change can reach up to $24 trillion (£19 trillion) in the next 36 years, Daily Mail reported.

The sectors most affected will be tourism, transport, food production, and healthcare, all this will lead to other effects by 2060.

While many climate studies focus on casualties, this one takes the supply chain in all countries into account, and talks about causes of climate change far beyond. Professor Guan underlines that the loss of revenues is proportionate to the degree of the temperature rise, which emphasises the universal risk to global economy.

The research peers at three possible conditions established on projected global warming levels under the name of ‘Shared Socioeconomic Pathways’ (SSPs). 

In the worst-case scenario, with high emissions, a rapid industrialisation and economic growth, the losses may be about five times bigger than in the best-case one. GDP losses are estimated between 0.8% under warming mild warming and 3.9% under severe scenario by 2060.

What is especially vivid and alarming is that the European Union, the United States and the United Kingdom could lose the biggest chunk of their GDP if the emission levels will be high, with chemical products, tourism, electrical equipment industries being mainly affected. 

The research predicted a substantial amount of extreme heat waves to increase, which would lead to over one million additional heatwaves deaths annually by 2060.

Some developing countries, particularly those in the tropics, will be affected in a drastic way as a result of climate change. The study provides a backdrop to the fiscal challenges that governments have to tackle associated with climate related risks.

These findings were reported in Nature.