While the numbers are startling, they may actually be on the low end. The research did not factor in the value of biodiversity, the psychological benefits of nature, cultural connections to the environment, and other costs that aren’t reflected in market-based measures like GDP. A UN report released Monday urged countries to consider these aspects of their relationship with the environment rather than focusing purely on economic indicators. Generally, wealthier and more northern nations have slightly benefited from climate change, Mankin said. Although Canada, Russia, and Scandinavian countries have faced wildfires and melting permafrost, they’ve also experienced longer growing seasons and increased agricultural yields as a result of warming temperatures. As the divide between regions’ vulnerabilities became apparent in recent years, countries like the U.S., Germany, and France pledged to help finance adaptation measures for the parts of the world that face the greatest risk. But the funds have been slow to arrive, despite a 2009 pledge to provide $100 billion annually starting in 2020. The study’s new figures, however, could help push that initiative along at November’s COP27 meeting in Egypt. Nations are slated to discuss “loss and damage,” a controversial effort to get the U.S. and other wealthy countries to sufficiently pay for that destruction. Though attempts to create a legal framework for loss and damage payments have stalled at previous global climate talks, a coalition of youth activists recently urged the COP27 president to make them a priority. “For far too long, efforts to reduce emissions and scale up adaptation have been utterly inadequate[,] exceeding people’s ability to adapt,” the Loss and Damage Youth Coalition wrote in an open letter in June. “Therefore, loss and damage is now part of the reality of climate change and must be addressed.”
This story was originally published by Grist with the headline US emissions cost the world $1.9 trillion in economic damages on Jul 13, 2022.