Geography
Intergenerational Equity in the Context of Long-Term Climate Debt
Quick fact
In 2021, the U.S. government’s official 'social cost of carbon' was updated to about $51 per ton, but a 2021 study in Nature suggested that a fair price considering intergenerational equity could be as high as $125 per ton or more. The exact number depends on how much we value the well-being of future generations relative to our own.
Why this is interesting
You’ve heard of national debt, but what about a debt we owe to people not yet born? Climate change is creating just that—a debt of risk and cost that our great-great-grandchildren will have to pay.