Climate crisis is ‘battering our economy’ and driving inflation, new book says

theguardian.com:

Forget Ukraine, coronavirus, corporate greed and “supply chain issues”, when it comes to inflation the climate crisis is the real, lasting, worry, according to a new book, and one that’s only likely to get worse.

Climatenomics, by former White House reporter and director of Environmental Entrepreneurs (E2) Bob Keefe, is a narrative account of how the climate crisis is fundamentally altering not just the US but global economies.

Within its pages, Keefe lays out what he sees as the false choice between creating jobs and driving economic growth and protecting the planet, and how “supply chain disruptions” has become a euphemism for the effects of climate change.

“I don’t think people have realized that climate change is an economic issue now because it’s always been seen as an environmental, health or social issue,” says Keefe. “The fact of the matter is climate change is battering our economy.”

Political and monetary policy leaders hinted as much this week after the US treasury secretary, Janet Yellen, acknowledged that inflation had reached “unacceptable” highs, it hit a 40-year high of 8.6% in the year to the end of May. Two days later the White Housesaid: “Our hemisphere is facing the devastating impacts and costs of climate change,” ahead of Joe Biden’s Summit of the Americas in Los Angeles.

Assessing the role of climate change on economies is one thing but, for now, most models merely assess the cost of climate-related disasters, not their underlying effect on inflation.

According to Keefe, citing National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (Noaa) figures, climate-related weather disasters cost the US economy more than $145bn in 2021 – a nearly 50% increase from last year. Over the last five years, they have cost