If You Think Fighting Climate Change Will Be Expensive, Calculate the Cost of Letting It Happen

With the Trump Administration’s surprising U-turn on the COP21 Paris Agreement, the U.S. finds itself with some strange bedfellows, joining Nicaragua and Syria in abstaining from this important treaty. 

The White House’s argument for leaving the treaty is based on economic nationalism: President Trump, in his speech announcing the decision, cited primarily the “lost jobs, lower wages, shuttered factories, and vastly diminished economic production” that he thought meeting the agreement’s voluntary targets would cause.

This echoes a common political talking point: that fighting climate change is bad for the economy.

I’d like to point out the flip side: that climate change itself is bad for the economy and investing in climate resilience is not only a national security priority, but an enormous economic opportunity.

Read Dante Disparte’s story on the Harvard Business Review - “If You Think Fighting Climate Change Will Be Expensive, Calculate the Cost of Letting It Happen."