Manufacturing materials such as plastic, steel and cement generates $79 billion in climate damages each year, according to a new study.
A team of researchers at the University of California, Davis, quantified the annual climate costs of producing nine common materials in the United States in a study released Thursday in Environmental Research Letters. The team used EPA’s social cost of carbon standard to show that the domestic manufacturing sector is generating tens of billions in climate costs, which go unreflected in the materials’ market prices.
These hidden climate costs, as quantified by EPA, include the price of mitigating and addressing climate-related disasters.
By putting a direct price tag on the manufacturing sector’s carbon emissions, the researchers hope to draw policymakers’ attention to the need to ensure the damages from carbon emissions get reflected in materials pricing, said the study’s lead author Elisabeth Van Roijen, who completed her Ph.D. at UC Davis earlier this year.
