On his first day in office, US President Joe Biden ordered an update to the social costs of carbon, methane (CH 4 ) and nitrous oxide (N 2 O). These damage costs are crucial to evaluating the global benefits and costs of policy measures to address climate change and are used in several countries beyond the United States, including Canada and the United Kingdom. Scientists and economists have invested heavily in improving estimates of the social cost of carbon1,2. However, the social cost of N 2 O has been given much less attention3. We argue that the unique environmental and human health impacts of N 2 O — particularly in relation to its role as an ozone-depleting substance — are not well represented in current estimates (if at all), leading to a significant undervaluation of the social cost of N 2 O. We estimate that incorporating N 2 O’s damage to the stratospheric ozone layer would increase its social cost by approximately 20%. Better accounting of nitrogen (N) pollution writ large — from its impacts on air and water quality to biodiversity loss — would make N 2 O mitigation even more economically compelling4. In short, a more accurate valuation of N 2 O damages is likely to significantly expand the number of measures and policies deemed economically and socially beneficial by the Biden administration and other countries as they implement their climate agendas.
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41558-021-01226-z
Improving the social cost of nitrous oxide
