Reported by today.ucsd.edu
From heat-related illness and deaths to lost work hours and higher insurance and utility bills, climate change is already affecting California’s economy. A new statewide report in California’s Fifth Climate Change Assessment shows how the costs are rising, rippling across sectors and falling unevenly across the state – and in San Diego, the community is going to need to prepare for large-scale adaptation to much warmer conditions .
Led by Gordon McCord and Teevrat Garg of the University of California San Diego School of Global Policy and Strategy, the “ Climate Impacts to the Economy ” report is one of four statewide topical reports in the Fifth Assessment, a multi-year research effort led by the Governor’s Office of Land Use and Climate Innovation (LCI) with state, academic, tribal and community partners.
The report finds that the largest monetized damages are in health and labor. But the economic effects can extend well beyond the initial shock, as disruptions in one sector raise costs in others and compound losses across the economy.
The interconnections are important,” said McCord, teaching professor at the UC San Diego School of Global Policy and Strategy. “Large impacts on agriculture translate to food prices for households and businesses. What happens in one part of the economy can spread into others.”
