Report

American Climate Prospectus: Economic Risks in the United States

Solomon Hsiang, Robert Kopp, Amir Jina, Michael Delgado, James Rising, Shashank Mohan, Robert Muir-Wood, D. J. Rasmussen, Michael Mastrandrea, Paul Wilson, Kate Larsen and Trevor Houser

Published October 20, 2014

Abstract

The United States faces a range of economic risks from global climate change — from increased flooding and storm damage, to climate-driven changes in crop yields and labor productivity, to heat-related strains on energy and public health systems. The American Climate Prospectus (ACP) provides a groundbreaking new analysis of these and other climate risks by region of the country and sector of the economy. By linking state-of-the-art climate models with econometric research of human responses to climate variability and cutting edge private sector risk assessment tools, the ACP offers decision-makers a data driven assessment of the specific risks they face.

 

The ACP is the result of an independent assessment of the economic risks of climate change commissioned by the bipartisan Risky Business Project. In conducting this assessment, Rhodium Group convened a research team, co-led by climate scientist Dr. Robert Kopp of Rutgers University and economist Dr. Solomon Hsiang of the University of California, Berkeley. The team partnered with Risk Management Solutions (RMS), the world’s largest catastrophe-modeling company for insurance, reinsurance, and investment-management companies. The team’s research methodology and draft work was reviewed by an Expert Review Panel composed of leading climate scientists and economists, including: Kerry Emanuel, Karen Fisher-Vanden, Michael Greenstone, Katharine Hayhoe, Geoffrey Heal, Douglas Holtz-Eakin, Michael Spence, Larry Linden, Linda Mearns, Michael Oppenheimer, Sean Ringstead, Tom Rutherford, Jonathan Samet, and Gary Yohe.

 

The ACP research was subsequently published as a book by Columbia University Press and in the peer-reviewed journal Science.