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Country-level social cost of carbon

Author

Listed:
  • Katharine Ricke

    (University of California San Diego
    University of California San Diego)

  • Laurent Drouet

    (RFF-CMCC European Institute on Economics and the Environment (EIEE))

  • Ken Caldeira

    (Carnegie Institution for Science)

  • Massimo Tavoni

    (RFF-CMCC European Institute on Economics and the Environment (EIEE)
    Economics and Industrial Engineering)

Abstract

The social cost of carbon (SCC) is a commonly employed metric of the expected economic damages from carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. Although useful in an optimal policy context, a world-level approach obscures the heterogeneous geography of climate damage and vast differences in country-level contributions to the global SCC, as well as climate and socio-economic uncertainties, which are larger at the regional level. Here we estimate country-level contributions to the SCC using recent climate model projections, empirical climate-driven economic damage estimations and socio-economic projections. Central specifications show high global SCC values (median, US$417 per tonne of CO2 (tCO2); 66% confidence intervals, US$177–805 per tCO2) and a country-level SCC that is unequally distributed. However, the relative ranking of countries is robust to different specifications: countries that incur large fractions of the global cost consistently include India, China, Saudi Arabia and the United States.

Suggested Citation

  • Katharine Ricke & Laurent Drouet & Ken Caldeira & Massimo Tavoni, 2018. "Country-level social cost of carbon," Nature Climate Change, Nature, vol. 8(10), pages 895-900, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:natcli:v:8:y:2018:i:10:d:10.1038_s41558-018-0282-y
    DOI: 10.1038/s41558-018-0282-y
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