Dive Brief:
- The United States would benefit significantly from a global campaign to stem climate change, including health benefits, cheaper energy and a cleaner environment, according to a new report out by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
- The report, “Climate Change in the United States: Benefits of Global Action,” estimated electricity demand growth could be slowed by up to 4% in 2050 by a sustained effort to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
- EPA said it compared two scenarios in the report: one where global warming has been limited to 2 degrees centigrade, and a future with no action on climate change and where global temperatures rise 5 degrees centigrade.
Dive Insight:
Fighting climate change will have wide-ranging positive impacts, according to a new report by the EPA which quantified two climate change scenarios and then quantified their impacts to the nation's health, infrastructure and ecosystem.
“Will the United States benefit from climate action? Absolutely. This report shows us how costly inaction will be to Americans’ health, our environment and our society. But more importantly, it helps us understand the magnitude of benefits to a number of sectors of the U.S. with global climate action,” EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy said in a statement.
Reducing climate change can save tens of thousands of American lives and hundreds of billions of dollars annually, McCarthy sad.
In the electricity sector, the agency estimated stemming climate change could avoid an increase in demand in 2050 of approximately 1.1% to 4%. On the supply side, EPA said reducing global warming would save an estimated $10 billion to $34 billion in power system costs in 2050.
“Without global GHG mitigation, rising temperatures will likely result in higher electricity demand across the country, as the increased need for air conditioning outweighs decreases in electric heating
requirements,” the report concluded. “The estimated percent increase in electricity demand for air conditioning is highest in the Northeast and Northwest regions.”
The report also found global GHG mitigation would lead to lower electricity demand in all regions, relative to a reference scenario. The EPA projected that average U.S. electricity demand will increase under the reference case by 1.5% to 6.5% by 2050, compared to a control with no temperature change.