An official website of the United States government.

This is not the current EPA website. To navigate to the current EPA website, please go to www.epa.gov. This website is historical material reflecting the EPA website as it existed on January 19, 2021. This website is no longer updated and links to external websites and some internal pages may not work. More information »

Climate Action Benefits Report

Climate Action Benefits: Results by Sector

This report analyzes 20 specific climate change impacts in the U.S., which are categorized into six broad sectors. Choose from the sectors listed below to get to detailed information about each of the impacts, including:

About the Results

  • Background on the impact being estimated, along with a brief summary of the approach to estimating the impact;
  • Key findings and graphics depicting the risks of inaction and the benefits to the U.S. of global GHG mitigation; and
  • References to the underlying peer-reviewed research upon which these estimates are based.

Learn more:

Photo: Young boy walks through a splash park
Photo: Photo: Bridge with a colorful sky
Photo: Electricity transmission towers and lines
Photo: River with fall foliage
Photo: Close-up of healthy corn growing in field
Photo: Underwater view of fish and sea vegetation
 

About the Results

Unless otherwise noted, results presented in this website on the CIRA report were developed using the following criteria:

Emissions scenarios: The results are presented for the CIRA Reference and Mitigation scenarios. See the Methods of Analysis section for more information.

Accounting for inflation: The results are presented in constant 2014 dollars.1

Climate models: The results primarily rely upon climate projections from the IGSM-CAM. For sectors sensitive to changes in precipitation, results are also presented for the drier MIROC climate model. See the Methods of Analysis section for more information.

Discounting: To estimate present value, annual time series of costs are discounted at a 3% annual rate, with a base year of 2015.2 Annual estimates (i.e., costs in a given year) are not discounted.

Climate sensitivity: The results assume a climate sensitivity of 3.0°C.

Reporting of estimates: For consistency, results are reported with two significant figures.