Why $16.5 Trillion to Save the Planet Isn't as Much as You Think
- 8 years ago
Making the energy industry safer for the climate may not cost as much as you think, even if the price tag is $16.5 trillion.
That's the sum the International Energy Agency estimates it will cost the 187 governments to clean up pollution under the pledges made for the United Nations climate talks in Paris, which concluded on Saturday.
In all, governments will spend $13.5 trillion meeting their goals.
If they spent $3 trillion more, it would hold temperature increases to the ceiling they adopted of 2 degrees Celsius .
It's an eye-popping figure.
Yet the world is already set to invest about $68 trillion on its energy needs by 2040, even without a climate plan, the IEA projects.
That will go for everything from renewable energy to coal-fired plants and building efficiency upgrades.
That's the sum the International Energy Agency estimates it will cost the 187 governments to clean up pollution under the pledges made for the United Nations climate talks in Paris, which concluded on Saturday.
In all, governments will spend $13.5 trillion meeting their goals.
If they spent $3 trillion more, it would hold temperature increases to the ceiling they adopted of 2 degrees Celsius .
It's an eye-popping figure.
Yet the world is already set to invest about $68 trillion on its energy needs by 2040, even without a climate plan, the IEA projects.
That will go for everything from renewable energy to coal-fired plants and building efficiency upgrades.