Near-linear cost increase to reduce climate-change risk

The relationship between the costs of climate policy and the risks of climate change may look more favorable than commonly perceived. These findings are recently published in PNAS. The research analyzed the relationship between mitigation costs and the likelihood of achieving a climate target. It found that the costs associated with achieving such a target do not necessarily increase exponentially - but instead increase nearly linearly. In economic terms, there is a nearly proportional return on investment in mitigation in terms of increasing the probability of reaching temperature targets (such as the EU 2 degrees target).