Official report: Climate change causing damages to U.S. economy

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Climate change is expected to cause growing losses and slow down the U.S. economic growth over this century, according to an official report published on Friday.

The report, released by the United States Global Change Research Program (USCGRP), has confirmed that the human health and safety, the quality of life and the rate of economic growth in communities in the country are increasingly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change.

With continued growth in emissions at historic rates, annual losses in some economic sectors are projected to reach hundreds of billions of dollars by the end of the century – more than the current GDP of many U.S. states, the report says.

However, the United States announced in November 2017 that it would quit the landmark Paris Agreement on climate change as soon as "it is eligible to do so," unless the terms of the international pact became "more favorable" to American people.

California wildfires could cost 13 billion U.S. dollars

The latest disaster came to the massive wildfire in California, killing at least 87 with over 500 listed as missing.

Wildfire recovery site, the town of Paradise, California, U.S., November 21, 2018. /VCG Photo

Ratings agency Fitch said that losses from the wildfires may hurt fourth-quarter earnings of insurers. Risk Management Solutions (RMS), a risk modeler, estimated that the disaster could cost insurers between nine and 13 billion U.S. dollars.

Farm produce ravaged

The new report is the latest and most detailed confirmation that humans are driving climate change and that Americans are already adapting to and suffering from its effects.

Rising temperatures, extreme heat, drought, wildfire on rangelands and heavy downpours are expected to increasingly challenge the quality and quantity of U.S. crop yields, livestock health, price stability and rural livelihoods, according to the report.

Among those disasters are flooding that is expected to compound existing issues with aging infrastructure in the country's northeastern area and drought that threatens oil, gas drilling and power generation which rely on surface water for cooling, the report says.

A corn field is affected by heavy rainfall, Paw Paw, Illinois, U.S., May 25, 2017. /VCG Photo

USGCRP is a program mandated by the U.S. Congress to coordinate federal research and investments in understanding the forces shaping the global environment and their impacts on society.

Source(s): Xinhua News Agency