Floods, major forest fires and droughts caused by climate change are expected to divert much of the US federal budget on an annual basis by the end of the century, according to the White House. for the first time yesterday, Sunday.
The Office of Management and Budget (OMB), which was commissioned by President Joe Biden last May, found that the economic impact of climate change on the budget by the end of the century could be as much as 7.1%. , corresponding to $ 2 trillion (€ 1.81 trillion) a year, at the current value of the US currency.
“Climate change threatens communities and sectors of the economy across the country, including floods, droughts, extreme temperatures, forest fires, and extreme weather events (affecting) the U.S. economy, but also the daily lives of Americans.” “Kandas Walsing, the IMB’s climate and science official, and Danny Yagan, the same office’s finance officer, said in a post that was read by Reuters before the official presentation of the estimates today.” “In the future, they will be much larger in scale than the disasters recorded today, if greenhouse gas emissions continue unabated,” the two officials said.
The same analysis found that the federal government would be required to spend additional funds, from $ 25 billion (€ 22.63 billion) to $ 128 billion (€ 115.85 billion) annually, on compensation for damage to the coast. projects, to repair agricultural damage, but also to cover insurance contributions related to the health sector. Amounts from the same costs will finance the suppression of forest fires and floods in federal government facilities.
Just last year, a wave of high temperatures and drought in the western United States caused two major wildfires in California and Oregon. These fires were recorded among the largest forest disasters in the history of the two American states. Extreme levels of drought have been recorded in the western United States since mid-2020, and may worsen further this spring, according to the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in March.
Military bases in the United States, including Offutt Air Force Base in Nebraska and Tyndall Air Force Base in Florida, have suffered billions of dollars in damage in recent years from floods and hurricanes.
The OMB estimates that increasing the number of forest fires could increase firefighting spending for the federal government by between $ 1.55 billion and $ 9.6 billion (€ 1.40 billion and € 8.69 billion) annually. base. Some 12,200 federal buildings and structures will be at risk of flooding as sea levels rise, and the cost of repairing the damage will be close to $ 44 billion (€ 39.82 billion).
If there are no policies and actions to slow down greenhouse gas emissions, global temperatures will rise by more than 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels by the end of the century. The pessimistic assessment of the IMB comes just hours before the release of a report by a UN scientific team on methods for controlling harmful gas emissions. Some scholars argue that this report may downplay the possibility of specific disaster scenarios, given its compromise nature, as it must be signed by 195 governments.
President Biden, a Democrat who presented himself as a “champion” in tackling climate change when he took office in January 2021, was forced to support increased US oil drilling and liquefied natural gas exports to Europe. , as Russia’s war in Ukraine raises energy inflation.
SOURCE: AMPE
Source: Capital
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