In the NewsWashington PostFebruary 26, 2021

Biden is hiking the cost of carbon. It will change how the U.S. tackles global warming.

“A new social cost of carbon can tip the scales for hundreds of policy decisions facing the federal government,” said Tamma Carleton, assistant professor at the Bren School of Environmental Science & Management at the University of California, Santa Barbara and affiliate of the Climate Impact Lab. “Any policy, project, or regulation that lowers emissions will now have a higher dollar value, reflecting the many benefits future Americans enjoy when emissions fall today.” “Confronting climate change will cost money,” she said. And putting a higher price on global warming’s damages, she added, “highlights the large hidden costs of doing nothing." Tamma Carleton and Michael Greenstone of the Climate Impact Lab talk with the Washington Post about the Biden administration's interim update to the social cost of carbon.