Study says climate change will cost the world $70 trillion

A study published in Nature Communications says, climate change and the melting of the permafrost in the Arctics is going to be an expensive issue for us. It will, globally, cost us $70 trillion.

Like a vicious circle of global warming, carbon is released into the atmosphere due to the increasing loss of Arctic permafrost which occurs due to the increase in temperature on Earth. This has a multi-trillion dollar impact on the world economy, the study said.

It is going to be an expensive economic consequence that we will be facing if we do not find a way to rectify the changes.

This study also mentions that even if we do follow the proposals suggested by the Paris Agreement, to keep the rise in global temperatures this century within 1.5 degree Celsius, there will still be cost. However, it will be much lower than this estimation.

A new study has revealed that the thawing permafrost in Alaskan lakes have been releasing 12 times more nitrous oxide than previously estimated. Nitrous oxide is another global warming gas but is nearly 300 times more potent at trapping heat than carbon dioxide. It also dissolves the ozone layer.

“With climate change, we’re conducting a high-risk experiment where we don’t know what is coming,” says co-author of the study Kevin Schaefer said. “The most important thing to remember about our study is the greater the warming, the stronger the feedbacks and the higher the costs to society.”

He says we are already experiencing the impacts and the costs of climate change. Shifting to a low-carbon economy is the biggest business opportunity of the 21st century.

Permafrost and loss of albedo (reflectivity of a surface) are the only two feedbacks through which we can estimate the cost, at this point.