The Midwest and Northeast are finally feeling some relief after a heatwave. However, record-high temperatures exact a toll on the US economy: the Atlantic Council estimates extreme heat costs the US GDP $100 billion annually, a figure that could double by 2030 as climate change accelerates. The Center for Climate and Energy Solutions (C2ES) president Nathaniel Keohane joins Market Domination Overtime to discuss how heat impacts the economy.
Keohane explains that heatwaves impact both agricultural productivity and labor productivity. "It's harder to do good work when the heat really climbs. And then there is also heat-related mortality in the US. That's less of an issue. It does happen in real bad heat waves, but globally, that's a big impact both in terms of human impacts but also in terms of economic impacts," he explains. Infrastructure is also impacted by extreme heat, as electric grids need to be updated to remain resilient.
He adds, "I think there's more that the federal government and the state governments can do. We're starting to see that FEMA, the Federal Emergency Management Administration, is starting to look at the investments that need to be made to adapt to a changing climate across the board, including on heat." To tackle these issues, he believes investments and policies need to be put in place to curb emissions contributing to climate change.
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This post was written by Melanie Riehl