Protecting residents from extreme heat, increasing precipitation, coastal erosion, and climate-induced public health threats will cost nearly $1 billion per year through 2040, according to new findings from the Center for Climate Integrity, Resilient Analytics, and Scioto Analysis
Press Releases
June 18, 2024
WISCONSIN — Wisconsin communities face at least $16.7 billion in costs to protect residents and infrastructure from extreme heat, increased precipitation, coastal erosion, climate-induced public health threats, and other climate change impacts by the end of 2040, a new study from the Center for Climate Integrity, Resilient Analytics, and Scioto Analysis shows.
“Confronting Wisconsin’s Climate Costs: At Least $16.7 Billion to Protect Communities from Climate Change through 2040” is the first-ever estimate of what it would cost Wisconsin communities to enact nine climate adaptation strategies and respond to three climate-induced public health threats.
The study identified the following climate adaptation costs facing Wisconsin:
$6.67 billion to improve stormwater management to mitigate flooding
$5.09 billion to increase road maintenance because of heavy rain and heat stress
$2.56 billion to plant and maintain trees to combat urban heat islands
$810.4 million to install air conditioning in public buildings
$374.7 million to reinforce bridges against anticipated climate wear and tear
$347.8 million to respond to an increase in Lyme disease cases
$293 million to build coastal defenses to protect infrastructure from coastal erosion and changing lake levels
$208.8 million to respond to an increase in West Nile Virus cases
$205.7 million to protect rural communities from flooding
$80.8 million to heat and cool public buildings in response to changing temperatures
$49 million to expand and operate cooling centers
$35.5 million to respond to an increase in pediatric asthma cases
The study employed conservative, “least-cost” estimates under a moderate climate scenario and did not calculate the projected cost of every climate impact and possible adaptation that Wisconsin will ultimately experience. As the climate crisis worsens, total costs will likely be much higher.
Climate change costs will continue to fall on taxpayers — but officials could make polluters pay instead. In the report, the Center for Climate Integrity argues that major fossil fuel companies, whose decades-long deception and pollution have fueled the climate crisis, should be held accountable to pay their fair share of Wisconsin’s necessary climate adaptations, adding that successful legal actions against tobacco companies and opioid manufacturers “provide a useful model.”
“Dozens of states and communities — including the neighboring State of Minnesota and City of Chicago — have filed lawsuits to recover the costs of climate damages from major oil companies, who have long known their products fuel climate change but waged a decades-long disinformation campaign to deceive the public,” the study reads. “Wisconsin and its local governments should consider similar legal action to make polluters pay their fair share of climate costs and ensure that taxpayers aren’t left to pay the bill alone.”
A new poll released today from Data for Progress and CCI shows that 63% of Wisconsin voters support suing oil and gas companies to make them pay their fair share of climate costs.
Read the full study and detailed climate cost projections for Wisconsin communities here.