Welcome to SEI’s U.S. Center
The Stockholm Environment Institute is an international not-for-profit research organization that has been engaged in environment and development issues at local, national, regional and global policy levels for more than 20 years.
Our goal is to bring about change for sustainable development by bridging science and policy. We do this by conducting integrated analysis that supports decision-makers.
SEI's work is interdisciplinary in nature, drawing upon engineering, economics, ecology, ethics, operations research, international relations and software design.
We work all around the world building capacity for integrated sustainability planning through training and collaboration on projects.
SEI's U.S. Center is a research affiliate of Tufts University in Massachusetts and also has offices in Davis, California, and Seattle, Washington.
Accounting for uncertaintyClimate Risks and Carbon Prices: Revising the Social Cost of CarbonA new SEI analysis raises serious questions about the U.S. government's estimate of the "social cost of carbon" – a key factor in environmental regulation. 
The SCC – a calculation of the damage caused by each additional tonne of carbon dioxide (CO2) emitted into the atmosphere – is a key policy-making factor, used in cost-benefit analyses of everything from power plant regulations to car fuel-efficiency standards. The figure the U.S. government has used since last year, developed by an interagency group, is $21 per ton of CO2. But that number, SEI senior economists Frank Ackerman and Liz Stanton found, is based on fundamentally flawed methodologies and grossly understates the potential impact and uncertainty of climate change. Making small adjustments to the models to address these issues leads to values as high as $893 per ton in 2010 and $1550 in 2050. The findings, the authors say, raise serious questions about prior analyses of the benefits of reducing emissions and should lead policymakers to rethink what they consider cost-effective. "The government has been making decisions based on the flawed calculation that carbon dioxide emissions cost just $21 per ton. In fact, the real cost may be up to forty times that amount," says Stanton. Comparing prior research on the cost of reducing emissions with the report’s new findings on the cost of carbon, the report concludes that it is highly likely it is costing the United States more to do nothing about climate change than it would to adopt mitigation measures. "Now that we know how much we could end up paying to endure the impacts of climate change, investing in reducing our emissions is clearly the prudent option," says Ackerman. "It's the difference between servicing your car, or waiting for it to break down on the highway." The peer-reviewed report, Climate Risks and Carbon Prices: Revising the Social Cost of Carbon, was funded and published by the Economics for Equity and the Environment Network (E3 Network). Click here to read more about the report and download a PDF and supporting materials. |