Climate change will eventually force the US government to spend billions more annually due to hurricane damage alone, according to a Congressional Budget Office report published Thursday.
The influential legislative forecaster said the federal government currently spends $18 billion every year on hurricane recovery, but that amount, adjusted for inflation, will grow to $24 billion by 2075.
Overall, the study predicted that hurricane damage will by 2075 account for $39 billion in all spending, public and private. The CBO said the US currently spends $28 billion on hurricane recovery.
“Roughly 45 percent of that increase is attributable to climate change and 55 percent to coastal development,” CBO researchers said.
Gloomily, the report noted efforts to reduce hurricane damage by reining in greenhouse gas emissions might not yield results for decades.
“[T]he extent of the reduction would be uncertain and it would probably occur in the latter half of this century because the rise in sea levels has already been set in motion and would be hard to slow down,” CBO said.
It also noted that “a significant reduction in US greenhouse gas emissions, without corresponding decreases in the emissions of other large economies, would probably not reduce hurricane damage appreciably between now and 2075.”
The report was prepared by CBO for Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Patty Murray (D-Wash.).
“Extreme weather disasters like hurricanes will devastate communities and cost the American taxpayers billions of dollars,” Sanders said in response to the report’s publication. “When it comes to addressing climate change, the most expensive option is to do nothing at all.”
