Global climate change intentions become commitments

Global agreements are about turning intentions into commitments — and commitments into action. That’s why it’s so important that China, Canada, and the United States took key steps this week to advance the global climate goals leaders set last December in Paris.

Wind turbines near
Mt Hood in Oregon, USA.

First came word that China cut its coal consumption for the second year in a row. The world’s largest user of coal and largest emitter of the carbon pollution driving climate change, China burned 3.7 percent less coal last year than it did in 2014. In 2014, coal consumption fell 2.9 percent.

The country’s economy continued to grow at an official 2015 rate of 6.9 percent. The amount of energy consumed as a share of economic output, though, fell 5.6 percent.

Read Rhea Suh’s Natural Resources Defense Council blog - “A Big Week for Climate Action.”

We know what's causing climate change, but what about the cost?

W

e know what’s driving climate change: the carbon pollution from burning fossil fuels and other sources.

But exactly how much damage does each ton of carbon pollution cause when you tally up the harm to crops from drought and heat, property damage from floods and storms, increased rates of asthma attacks and other risks to our environment and health?

The White House did the math this month, pegging the cost of this damage at $36 a ton.

Last year alone, the nation’s power plants pumped 2.1 billion tons of carbon pollution into our atmosphere, accounting for 38 percent of the U.S. carbon footprint. At $36 a ton, that comes to a staggering $73.8 billion in economic costs that rise each year that climate change worsens.

Read the Natural Resources Defense Council story - “The Social Cost of Carbon”.