Social carbon costs is defined by the U.S. EPA as a measure, in dollars, of the long-term damage that one ton of carbon dioxide causes in a given year, or the damages avoided in an emissions reduction. The social carbon cost number is designed to be a comprehensive, but not cumulative, estimate of the damages due to climate change and includes changes or losses in net agricultural productivity, human health, property damages, and changes in energy systems. The UN IPCC Fifth Assessment Report notes that this number, however, does not account for all physical, ecological and economic impacts of climate change, meaning the number is likely even higher. The Environmental Defense Fund reports that the most robust and credible research to date shows that the social cost of carbon is roughly $40 per ton.
In a basic sense, the social cost of carbon is calculated by integrating climate science with economic analysis. First, projected future emissions are based upon various socioeconomic (GDP and population) predictions. Emissions are then translated into atmospheric concentration levels, concentration levels into temperature changes, and temperature changes into monetized economic damages. Damages increase over time as physical and economic systems become more stressed in response to greater climate change (Johnson & Hope, 2012).
Higher education in America is getting involved in major ways when it comes to social carbon costs. Colleges and universities nationwide have signed on to this letter to call upon our elected officials to endorse carbon pricing in order to create an economy-wide incentive to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. A number of schools have taken the lead and signed on already, including Swarthmore College and Dickinson College, both in Pennsylvania, as well as Colgate University, Wesleyan University, and the University of California-Berkeley, among others.
Other institutions are looking at the system of the social cost of carbon and searching for new and innovative ways to revamp the model. The University of Chicago is working on a more “empirically based” calculation of the social cost of carbon. A Yale University conducted an experiment in 2017 “provides new insights into the value of carbon-pricing incentives” to “highlight some of the ingredients needed to achieve successful carbon-pricing schemes.” Both examples seek to validate the effectiveness of converting carbon into a price, and Yale deemed putting a price on carbon to be a key strategy in fighting the effects of climate change. The idea is that offering direct incentives will promote behavior change that reduce greenhouse gases.
Lehigh University has a role to play, too. First looking inward, understanding and evaluating the university’s operations by assessing the impact of the carbon factor is crucial. Lehigh has committed constructing new buildings with LEED silver certifications at the minimum, and has signed on to the Real Food Challenge to make 20 percent of its food “real” - which includes purchasing food locally, which reduces greenhouse gases. More outwardly, Lehigh, surrounded by an urban community, has the opportunity to work with the City of Bethlehem to devise a strategy that includes the social cost of carbon in new initiatives and public works projects.