In this week’s episode, host Daniel Raimi talks with two fellows at Resources for the Future: Brian C. Prest and Kevin Rennert. Prest and Rennert, alongside a large team of collaborators, recently released a paper in the journal “Nature” that provides a new estimate of the social cost of carbon—the quantification, in dollars, of the economic damages associated with emitting an incremental ton of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. For the podcast, they describe what’s new about this estimate, how it differs from previous numbers, and its implications for policymaking. They also discuss the important uncertainties associated with the estimate, along with assertions made by some critics that we should put less focus on using the social cost of carbon.

References and recommendations:

“Comprehensive Evidence Implies a Higher Social Cost of CO2” by Kevin Rennert, Frank Errickson, Brian C. Prest, Lisa Rennels, Richard G. Newell, William Pizer, Cora Kingdon, Jordan Wingenroth, Roger Cooke, Bryan Parthum, David Smith, Kevin Cromar, Delavane Diaz, Frances C. Moore, Ulrich K. Müller, Richard J. Plevin, Adrian E. Raftery, Hana Ševčíková, Hannah Sheets, James H. Stock, Tammy Tan, Mark Watson, Tony E. Wong, and David Anthoff; https://www.rff.org/publications/journal-articles/comprehensive-evidence-implies-a-higher-social-cost-of-co2/

An Updated Social Cost of Carbon: Calculating the Cost of Climate Change” RFF Live event; https://www.rff.org/events/rff-live/an-updated-scc/

“The Social Cost of Carbon: Reaching a New Estimate” by Brian C. Prest, Jordan Wingenroth, and Kevin Rennert; https://www.resources.org/archives/the-social-cost-of-carbon-reaching-a-new-estimate

Social Cost of Carbon Initiative at Resources for the Future; https://www.rff.org/scc/

Mimi Integrated Assessment Modeling Framework; https://www.mimiframework.org/

“The Rule of Five: Making Climate History at the Supreme Court” by Richard J. Lazarus; https://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674238121