Economic costs of extratropical storms under climate change: An application of FUND

Extratropical cyclones have attracted some attention in climate policy circles as a possible significant damage factor of climate change. This study conducts an assessment of economic impacts of increased storm activities under climate change with the integrated assessment model FUND 3.4. In the base case, the direct economic damage of enhanced storms due to climate change amounts to $2.4 billion globally (approximately 35% of the total economic loss of storms at present) at the year 2100, while its ratio to the world GDP is 0.0007%. The paper also shows various sensitivity runs exhibiting up to 4 times the level of damage relative to the base run. Corresponding Author: Email: [email protected] 1 Kiel Institute for the World Economy, Düsternbrooker Weg 120, Kiel 24105, Germany 2 Economic and Social Research Institute, Whitaker Square, Sir John Rogerson’s Quay, Dublin 2, Ireland; Email: [email protected] Institute for Environmental Studies and Department of Spatial Economics, Vrije Universiteit, De Boelelaan 1081, Amsterdam, the Netherlands Department of Engineering and Public Policy, Carnegie Mellon University, Baker Hall 129, Pittsburgh, PA 15213, USA 3 Economic and Social Research Institute, Whitaker Square, Sir John Rogerson’s Quay, Dublin 2, Ireland; Email: [email protected] ESRI working papers represent un-refereed work-in-progress by members who are solely responsible for the content and any views expressed therein. Any comments on these papers will be welcome and should be sent to the author(s) by email. Papers may be downloaded for personal use only. Economic costs of extratropical storms under climate change: An application of FUND