Comprehensive evidence implies a higher social cost of CO(2)

The social cost of carbon dioxide (SC-CO(2)) measures the monetized value of the damages to society caused by an incremental metric tonne of CO(2) emissions and is a key metric informing climate policy. Used by governments and other decision-makers in benefit–cost analysis for over a decade, SC-CO(2) estimates draw on climate science, economics, demography and other disciplines. However, a 2017 report by the US National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine(1) (NASEM) highlighted that current SC-CO(2) estimates no longer reflect the latest research. The report provided a series of recommendations for improving the scientific basis, transparency and uncertainty characterization of SC-CO(2) estimates. Here we show that improved probabilistic socioeconomic projections, climate models, damage functions, and discounting methods that collectively reflect theoretically consistent valuation of risk, substantially increase estimates of the SC-CO(2). Our preferred mean SC-CO(2) estimate is $185 per tonne of CO(2) ($44–$413 per tCO(2): 5%–95% range, 2020 US dollars) at a near-term risk-free discount rate of 2%, a value 3.6 times higher than the US government’s current value of $51 per tCO(2). Our estimates incorporate updated scientific understanding throughout all components of SC-CO(2) estimation in the new open-source Greenhouse Gas Impact Value Estimator (GIVE) model, in a manner fully responsive to the near-term NASEM recommendations. Our higher SC-CO(2) values, compared with estimates currently used in policy evaluation, substantially increase the estimated benefits of greenhouse gas mitigation and thereby increase the expected net benefits of more stringent climate policies.