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While scientists and campaigners continue calling on world leaders to pursue more ambitious policies to cut planet-heating emissions based on moral arguments and physical dangers, a U.S. think tank released survey results on Tuesday that make a clear economic case for sweeping climate action. The Institute for Policy Integrity at New York University School of Law invited 2,169 Ph.D. economists to take a 15-question online survey "focused on climate change risks, economic damage estimates, and emissions abatement," according to a report on the results.

Calling its poll the largest-ever expert survey on the economics of climate change, New York University School of Law’s Institute for Policy Integrity said the results show an “overwhelming consensus that the costs of inaction on climate change are higher than the costs of action”— namely, immediate reductions in emissions. The $1.7 trillion would amount to a 1% decline in projected global gross domestic product (GDP). 

Almost three fourths of economists in a recent survey said that "immediate and drastic action is necessary" to address climate change, with nearly 80 percent reporting that their concerns have grown over the past five years. The survey of more than 2,000 Ph.D. economists is conducted annually by the Institute for Policy Integrity and the results show that the consensus is building that the cost of reaching net-zero emissions would likely outweigh the costs. "People who spend their careers studying our economy are in widespread agreement that climate change will be expensive, potentially devastatingly so," Peter Howard, economics director at the Institute for Policy Integrity, said in a statement to CNN. 

The vast majority of economists with expertise in climate change agree that the benefits of deep emissions cuts outweigh the costs, a survey shows. Researchers at the Institute for Policy Integrity at the NYU School of Law said they believe their new research is the "largest-ever expert survey on the economics of climate change."

Economists predicted climate change will hurt the economy and worsen income inequality, and said efforts to mitigate change would be cheaper than dealing with the effects of it. The New York University School of Law’s Institute for Policy Integrity heard from 738 economists, all of whom had published articles on climate in 45 top-rated economics, environmental economics and development economics journals.

Worsening inequality, trillions of dollars in economic damage and depressed economic growth. Those are the outcomes that economists fear we will face unless the world aggressively confronts the climate crisis. Nearly three-quarters (74%) of economists agree "immediate and drastic" action is warranted to curb emissions, according to a survey released Tuesday from the Institute for Policy Integrity at the NYU School of Law. "People who spend their careers studying our economy are in widespread agreement that climate change will be expensive, potentially devastatingly so," said Peter Howard, economics director at the Institute.

“People joke about how economists can’t agree on most things,” said Derek Sylvan, the institute’s strategy director and one of the authors of the survey. “But we find a pretty strong level of consensus” on the economic importance of climate action.

The majority of economists say that the benefits of reaching net-zero emissions by 2050 would outweigh the costs, a new survey suggests. The findings suggest the majority of economists agree that the costs associated with unabated climate change would exceed those of ambitious climate action, said Derek Sylvan, strategy director the Institute for Policy Integrity at New York University School of Law, which conducted the survey. "There is a clear consensus among these experts that the status quo seems far more costly than a major energy transition,” he said. “Economists overwhelmingly support rapid emissions reductions, and they are optimistic about key technology costs continuing to drop.”

A growing number of climate economists say the world should take “immediate and drastic action” to tackle climate change, according to a survey published Tuesday. Failing to do so could cost the world some $1.7 trillion a year by the middle of this decade, escalating to about $30 trillion a year by 2075, according to estimations by the 738 economists from around the world surveyed by New York University’s Institute for Policy Integrity.

The cost of global warming will far outweigh the cost of rapidly cutting greenhouse gas emissions, more than 700 economists from around the world said Tuesday in an unprecedented call to climate action. "People who spend their careers studying our economy are in widespread agreement that climate change will be expensive, potentially devastatingly so," said Peter Howard, economics director at the Institute for Policy Integrity at NYU School of Law, which conducted the survey. "These findings show a clear economic case for urgent climate action."