Urban and Non-Urban Contributions to the Social Cost of Carbon

Urban and Non-Urban Contributions to the Social Cost of Carbon | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Article Urban and Non-Urban Contributions to the Social Cost of Carbon Francisco Estrada, Veronica Lupi, W.J. Wouter Botzen, Richard Tol This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-4671262/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Published Journal Publication published 06 May, 2025 Read the published version in Nature Communications → Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract The social cost of carbon (SCC) serves as a concise measure of climate change's economic impact, often reported at the global and country level. SCC values tend to be disproportionately high for less-developed, populous countries. Previous studies do not distinguish between urban and non-urban areas and ignore the synergies between local and global warming. High exposure and concurrent socioenvironmental problems exacerbate climate change risks in cities. Using a spatially explicit integrated assessment model, the SCC is estimated at USD$187/tCO2, rising to USD$484/tCO2 when including urban heat island (UHI) warming. Urban SCC dominates, representing about 96% of the global SCC, due to both urban exposure and the UHI. This finding implies that the highest global greenhouse gases (GHGs) emitters also experience the largest economic losses. Global cities have significant leverage on climate policy at the national and global scales and strong incentives for a swift transition to a low-carbon economy. Earth and environmental sciences/Climate sciences/Climate change/Climate-change impacts Earth and environmental sciences/Environmental social sciences/Climate-change impacts Full Text Additional Declarations There is NO Competing Interest. Supplementary Files ELBTSupplementaryInformation.docx Cite Share Download PDF Status: Published Journal Publication published 06 May, 2025 Read the published version in Nature Communications → Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. We do this by developing innovative software and high quality services for the global research community. Our growing team is made up of researchers and industry professionals working together to solve the most critical problems facing scientific publishing. Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-4671262","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":false,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":327206370,"identity":"7f5c7fa9-4282-4ec7-9355-97245c1c69db","order_by":0,"name":"Francisco Estrada","email":"data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAZAAAAAyAQMAAABI0h/eAAAABlBMVEX///8AAABVwtN+AAAACXBIWXMAAA7EAAAOxAGVKw4bAAABC0lEQVRIiWNgGAWjYBAC9gYogx9CyRHWwnMAypBsYAZRxiRoMThAtBb23oOPK/ccljc+fv7ohg9/DOTM2w+wSRfUbGPQnZGAXQvPuWTDM88OG247k8x2c2abgbHMmQQ26RnHbjOYnTmAVYu9RI6ZZMOBw4zbDiSz3eZt+JM4gwGohYcNqOV4A3Zb5N+Atdhv7n/Mdpvnj0H9DP4HQC3/gFoO4/CLBA9YS+IGCaAtPGwGCRISQFt42/DYwpOXbNhwID15xo3HZiC/GM6QeNhszdt3mweXX3jYzx582HDA2ra/P/HZDWCIyUvwJx+8zfPttpzZDewhBtSEIcLYgF0cj5ZRMApGwSgYBagAAMiuXxk2DczWAAAAAElFTkSuQmCC","orcid":"https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1403-2180","institution":"Instituto de Ciencias de la Atmósfera y Cambio Climático, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México","correspondingAuthor":true,"prefix":"","firstName":"Francisco","middleName":"","lastName":"Estrada","suffix":""},{"id":327206371,"identity":"590dfe20-dc25-4ed5-ad72-e93a50c2d1db","order_by":1,"name":"Veronica Lupi","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"IVM, VU University Amsterdam","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Veronica","middleName":"","lastName":"Lupi","suffix":""},{"id":327206372,"identity":"3795c14d-f6d1-4552-ba68-04f85c0e7cc3","order_by":2,"name":"W.J. 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