Climate Change Impacts in the United States: Benefits of Global Action

A new USEPA report, Climate Change Impacts in the United States: Benefits of Global Action, quantifies the physical effects and economic damages of climate change under two scenarios: a future with significant global action on climate change and a future in which greenhouse gas emissions continue to rise. These analyses are the product of the Climate Change Impacts and Risk Analysis (CIRA) project, an EPA-led collaborative modeling effort. The CIRA project is among the first multi-sector studies to quantify the projected benefits (avoided climate change damages) in the U.S. of global-scale greenhouse gas reductions using a common analytic framework and consistent underlying data inputs. The peer-reviewed report estimates 20 specific impacts categorized into six broad sectors: health, infrastructure, electricity, water resources, agriculture and forestry, and ecosystems. Specific health impacts examined include changes in premature mortality in 49 U.S. cities due to extreme temperature, premature mortality due to air quality impacts (ozone and fine particulates), extreme temperature effects on labor productivity, and water quality. This report shows how much we can reduce future climate impacts, and what we stand to gain, both in terms of physical as well as economic impacts, through global action on climate change.