The U.S. Department of Energy announced last week its policy updates on energy efficiency standards for microwave ovens. It now requires new models to have lesser power usage during stand-by mode.
Upon closer examination on the fine prints, the agency now uses a higher figure for “social cost of carbon,” to justify the benefits of the new policy. Previous figures of harm done by carbon-dioxide emissions was around $22 per ton this year, the new regulation now increased the figure to around $36 per ton. This increase is over 50 percent of the original cost.
The Obama administration is predicting that damage brought about by climate change can actually be more harmful than earlier estimates, mostly because of the impact of rising sea levels. This could also translate into the Obama administration imposing stricter regulations to control emissions of greenhouse gases.
In 2012, 12 branches of U.S. government agencies pooled together to try and estimate the cost of damage per ton of carbon dioxide resulting to global warming. The calculations turned out to be complicated. It meant analyzing climate models and computing how much the actual figure will be in the future, taking into consideration the effects of rising temperatures.
After which, they settled with the figure of around $21 per ton of carbon dioxide in 2010, and increasing it to $22 by 2013. This figure will continue to rise in the years to come.
This was an actual scheduled update, published by the Office of Management and Budget on May 2013. And in effect, the government is now looking into updated climate models to capture the damages of rising of sea levels. The same model also predicts that agriculture will be impacted more if the world temperature continues to rise.
The White House supports the figure, thinks that the value is still within range of conventional estimates that is according to OMB Spokeswoman Ari Isaacman Astles. She also added that the same figures are used by other international institutions, major corporations, as well as foreign governments.
