Skip to main content
Climate
Search

Main navigation

  • Climate 101
    • What We Know
    • What Can Be Done
    • Climate Primer
  • Explore
    • Podcast
    • Explainers
    • Climate Questions
    • For Educators
  • MIT Action
    • News
    • Events
    • Resources
  • Search
MIT

Main navigation

  • Climate 101
    • What We Know
    • What Can Be Done
    • Climate Primer
  • Explore
    • Podcast
    • Explainers
    • Climate Questions
    • For Educators
  • MIT Action
    • News
    • Events
    • Resources
  • Search
PostFebruary 14, 2019

What are the policy implications of a dramatic range of climate damage estimates?

"Dramatic climate disruption and massive economic losses are coming in just a few decades, not centuries, if we continue along our present path of inaction" notes Frank Ackerman (Synapse Energy Economics & former lecturer at the Department of Urban Studies and Planning), citing an ever increasing body of academic reports and articles.

Why, despite ominously large foreshadowing of the lifetime damages per ton of carbo dioxide, is there such deep uncertainty and a wide scale of value for those damages?

In Climate Damages: Uncertain but Ominous, or $51 per Ton? Ackerman explores the models used to project future costs, their reliability, and what uncertainty means for climate policy. Read Ackerman's full posts, part one - part two.

by Department of Urban Studies and Planning MIT
Topics
Finance & Economics
Energy
Government & Policy

Related Posts

PodcastApril 9, 2026

Re-air and update: Carbon pricing

Ask MIT Climate Podcast
Ask MIT Climate
PostApril 6, 2026

Connecting climate and sustainability: Synergies and tradeoffs

MIT Center for Sustainability Science and Strategy
MIT Global Change Forum 48
PostApril 3, 2026

Toward cheaper, cleaner hydrogen production

MIT News
“Creating high-impact technologies is always fun,” says Sobek.
PostApril 2, 2026

MIT researchers measure traffic emissions, to the block, in real-time

MIT News
New work by MIT researchers shows how to generate nearly real-time vehicle emissions information — which can measure the effects of policy changes, such as New York City's congestion pricing.

MIT Climate Knowledge in Your Inbox

 
 

MIT Groups Log In

Log In

Footer

  • About
  • Terms & Conditions
  • Privacy Policy
  • Accessibility
  • Contact
MIT Climate Project
MIT
  • Instagram
  • TikTok
  • YouTube
  • Simplecast
Communicator Award Winner
Communicator Award Winner