Barack Obama's efforts to act on climate change could extract "significant costs" on America's GDP and employment, the congressional budget office said today.
In testimony before the Senate's energy committee, the CBO director, Douglas Elmendorf, said that a climate change bill passed by the House of Representatives last June would cut US GDP by between one quarter and three quarters of a percent by 2020.
The costs of dealing with climate change would rise further still by 2050 when the bill envisages an 80% cut in US greenhouse gas emissions. America's GDP would be between 1% and 3.5% below where it might have been in a business as usual scenario, Elmendorf said.
"One of the great uncertainties about the costs of reducing carbon emissions is how readily the economy can move towards an economy that reduces its use of energy," he said. "In particular areas, in particular industries there will be significant effects." He added: "The fact that jobs turn up for some people does not mean that there are not significant costs for some people in some industries."
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