IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/sus/susewp/0424.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Urban and Non-Urban Contributions to the Social Cost of Carbon

Author

Listed:
  • Francisco

    (Instituto de Ciencias de la Atmósfera, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Mexico City 04510, México, Institute for Environmental Studies (IVM) Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam 1081 HV, the Netherlands Programa de Investigación en Cambio Climático Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Mexico City,Mexico)

  • Veronica Lupi

    (Department of Institute for Environmental Studies (IVM), Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam 1081 HV, the Netherlands, Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei, Milan)

  • Wouter Botzen

    (Department of Institute for Environmental Studies (IVM), Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam 1081 HV, the Netherlands)

  • Richard S.J. Tol

    (Department of Economics, University of Sussex, B91 NSL Falmer, United Kingdom)

Abstract

The social cost of carbon (SCC) serves as a concise gauge of climate change's economic impact, often reported at the global and country level. SCC values are disproportionately high for less-developed, populous countries. Assessing the contributions of urban and non-urban areas to the SCC can provide additional insights for climate policy. Cities are essential for defining global emissions, influencing warming levels and associated damages. High exposure and concurrent socioenvironmental problems exacerbate climate change risks in cities. Using a spatially explicit integrated assessment model, the SCC is estimated at USD$137-USD$579/tCO2, rising to USD$262-USD$1,075/tCO2 when including urban heat island (UHI) warming. Urban SCC dominates, with both urban exposure and the UHI contributing significantly. A permanent 1% reduction of the UHI in urban areas yields net present benefits of USD$484-USD$1,562 per urban dweller. Global cities have significant leverage and incentives for a swift transition to a low-carbon economy, and for reducing local warming.

Suggested Citation

  • Francisco & Veronica Lupi & Wouter Botzen & Richard S.J. Tol, 2024. "Urban and Non-Urban Contributions to the Social Cost of Carbon," Working Paper Series 0424, Department of Economics, University of Sussex Business School.
    • Handle: RePEc:sus:susewp:0424
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.sussex.ac.uk/webteam/gateway/file.php?name=wps-04-2024.pdf&site=18
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Lucas Chancel, 2022. "Global carbon inequality over 1990–2019," Post-Print halshs-04157767, HAL.
    2. Glen P. Peters & Robbie M. Andrew & Josep G. Canadell & Sabine Fuss & Robert B. Jackson & Jan Ivar Korsbakken & Corinne Le Quéré & Nebojsa Nakicenovic, 2017. "Key indicators to track current progress and future ambition of the Paris Agreement," Nature Climate Change, Nature, vol. 7(2), pages 118-122, February.
    3. Lucas Chancel, 2022. "Global carbon inequality over 1990–2019," PSE-Ecole d'économie de Paris (Postprint) halshs-04157767, HAL.
    4. Lucas Chancel, 2022. "Global carbon inequality over 1990–2019," Nature Sustainability, Nature, vol. 5(11), pages 931-938, November.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Dong, Kangyin & Zhao, Congyu & Nepal, Rabindra & Zander, Kerstin K., 2025. "Are natural disasters stumbling blocks to carbon inequality mitigation? A global perspective," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 227(C).
    2. Tobias Angel & Alexandre Berthe & Valeria Costantini & Mariagrazia D’Angeli, 2024. "How the nature of inequality reduction matters for CO2 emissions," Working Papers 2024.14, Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei.
    3. Zhao, Congyu & Jia, Rongwen & Dong, Kangyin, 2023. "Does financial inclusion achieve the dual dividends of narrowing carbon inequality within cities and between cities? Empirical evidence from China," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 195(C).
    4. Oskar Lindgren & Erik Elwing & Mikael Karlsson & Sverker C. Jagers, 2024. "Public acceptability of climate-motivated rationing," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 11(1), pages 1-9, December.
    5. Mundaca, Luis & Wamsler, Christine, 2025. "Engaging high-income earners in climate action: Policy insights from survey experiments," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 227(C).
    6. Robert Istrate & Victor Tulus & Robert N. Grass & Laurent Vanbever & Wendelin J. Stark & Gonzalo Guillén-Gosálbez, 2024. "The environmental sustainability of digital content consumption," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-11, December.
    7. Sager, Lutz, 2025. "Global air quality inequality over 2000–2020," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 130(C).
    8. Córcoles, Carmen & López, Luis Antonio & Osorio, Pilar & Zafrilla, Jorge, 2024. "The carbon footprint of the empty Castilla-La Mancha," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 184(C).
    9. Ollier, Maxime & De Cara, Stéphane, 2024. "Give and take: An analysis of the distributional consequences of emission tax-and-rebate schemes with an application to greenhouse gas emissions from European agriculture," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 219(C).
    10. Veríssimo, Diogo & Blake, Katie & Flint, Hilary Byerly & Doughty, Hunter & Espelosin, Dulce & Gregg, Emily A. & Kubo, Takahiro & Mann-Lang, Judy & Perry, Laura R. & Selinske, Matthew J. & Shreedhar, G, 2024. "Changing human behavior to conserve biodiversity," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 126106, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    11. Cappelli, Federica & Di Bucchianico, Stefano, 2024. "What role for profits and luxury consumption in the ecological transition?," IPE Working Papers 245/2024, Berlin School of Economics and Law, Institute for International Political Economy (IPE).
    12. Teaghan L. Hogg & Samantha K. Stanley & Léan V. O’Brien, 2024. "Validation of the Hogg Climate Anxiety Scale," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 177(6), pages 1-17, June.
    13. Bettarelli, Luca & Furceri, Davide & Pizzuto, Pietro & Shakoor, Nadia, 2024. "Climate change policies and income inequality," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 191(C).
    14. Malanima, Paolo, 2024. "International inequality in energy use and CO2 emissions (1820–2020)," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 70(C), pages 233-244.
    15. Ivanova, Diana & Wieland, Hanspeter, 2023. "Tracing carbon footprints to intermediate industries in the United Kingdom," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 214(C).
    16. André, Mathias & Bourgeois, Alexandre & Combet, Emmanuel & Lequien, Matthieu & Pottier, Antonin, 2024. "Challenges in measuring the distribution of carbon footprints: The role of product and price heterogeneity," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 220(C).
    17. Malerba, Daniele & Roscioli, Federico & Gaentzsch, Anja & Ward, Hauke, 2024. "Changing carbon footprints and the consequent impacts of carbon taxes and cash transfers on poverty and inequality across years: A Peruvian case study," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 192(C).
    18. Missbach, Leonard & Steckel, Jan Christoph, 2024. "Distributional impacts of climate policy and effective compensation: Evidence from 88 countries," EconStor Preprints 296491, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics.
    19. repec:ssa:lemwps:2025/04 is not listed on IDEAS
    20. Haimeng Liu & Liwei Wang & Jinzhou Wang & Hangtian Ming & Xuankuang Wu & Gang Xu & Shengwu Zhang, 2024. "Multidimensional spatial inequality in China and its relationship with economic growth," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 11(1), pages 1-13, December.
    21. Federica Cappelli, 2024. "Unequal contributions to CO2 emissions along the income distribution within and between countries," Working Papers 2024.06, Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei.

    More about this item

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sus:susewp:0424. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: University of Sussex Business School Communications Team (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/ecsusuk.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.