Government watchdog wants Trump administration to address price tag of climate change

Citing two large-scale studies of the cost of climate change in the United States, the new report concludes that the economic effects of climate change will be widespread — both geographically and across sectors of the economy. Though calculating the economic cost of climate change is an “evolving science,” according to Robert Kopp, a Rutgers University professor of climate science and Lab co-director, “it would make sense for climate change to be taken into account in decision-making.” Kopp did not help prepare the GAO report, but he did co-write the 2014 American Climate Prospectus, one of the two assessments the agency relied upon to make its recommendation. The other assessment was the Environmental Protection Agency's ongoing Climate Change Impacts and Risks Analysis. The GAO’s report, Kopp said, “is a fair assessment of the literature.”