The most persistent argument against aggressive climate action has never been that climate change isn't real — it is that addressing it will destroy economic growth, cost millions of jobs, and make ordinary people poorer. The New Climate Economy, a report from the Global Commission on the Economy and Climate chaired by former Mexican President Felipe Calderón, systematically dismantles this claim with evidence from across the global economy. The finding: the next decade of climate action offers a $26 trillion economic opportunity, 65 million new jobs, and avoided costs that dwarf the investments required. The trade-off is a myth. The question is why the myth has been so durable.
What Is This Book?
The 2018 flagship report of the New Climate Economy project (which has produced annual reports since 2014) synthesises research across five key economic systems — energy, cities, food and land use, water, and industry — to assess both the economic case for low-carbon transition and the specific policies most likely to accelerate it. The commission includes economists, former heads of state, business leaders, and climate scientists, and the report reflects that breadth: it is technically rigorous without being inaccessible, and policy-specific without being naive about political constraints.
The Core Economic Argument
The commission’s central finding is that the costs of climate inaction vastly exceed the costs of climate action, and that most of the investments required generate positive economic returns even before their climate benefits are counted. Energy efficiency investments pay back through reduced energy bills. Renewable energy is now cost-competitive or cheaper than fossil fuels in most markets. Dense, walkable urban design reduces infrastructure costs, improves public health, and generates economic productivity. Regenerative agriculture improves farmer incomes while sequestering carbon and rebuilding soil. The climate-economy trade-off is, in most cases, simply false.
The evidence is now clear: climate action is not the enemy of growth. Failing to act on climate is the enemy of growth — and every year of delay makes the eventual cost larger and the economic disruption more severe.
— Global Commission on the Economy and Climate, The New Climate Economy
The Policy Framework
Beyond the economic case, the report makes specific policy recommendations: carbon pricing, clean energy standards, urban land use reform, food system subsidies redirected from emissions-intensive to regenerative agriculture, and elimination of fossil fuel subsidies (estimated at $5.2 trillion globally in 2017, including indirect subsidies). The report is unusually specific about the political economy of these recommendations — acknowledging that most face entrenched opposition from incumbents who benefit from the current system, and proposing transition support mechanisms to manage distributional impacts.
6 Key Ideas From This Book
Bold climate action through 2030 generates $26 trillion in net economic benefit globally — through energy savings, reduced health costs, increased agricultural productivity, and new industries — before counting climate damage avoided.
The claim that climate action requires sacrificing economic growth is empirically false for most policy interventions. The majority of high-impact climate actions are economically positive independent of their climate benefits.
Cities account for 70% of global energy use and greenhouse gas emissions. Dense, connected, efficient urban design is the single most powerful lever for decarbonisation — and it also makes cities more productive, healthier, and economically dynamic.
Global fossil fuel subsidies — $5.2 trillion annually including indirect costs — are the most powerful market distortion preventing clean energy transition. Eliminating them is both the most economically efficient and politically difficult climate policy available.
The clean energy transition will create 65 million new jobs globally by 2030 — more than the total current workforces of the UK and Egypt combined. The net employment effect of decarbonisation is strongly positive.
No single policy does more work across more sectors than a credible, rising carbon price. The commission recommends $50–$100 per ton by 2030, with revenues recycled to support affected workers and communities.
Any Weaknesses?
The report’s relentlessly positive framing — climate action as economic opportunity — is both its political strength and its analytical limitation. The distributional impacts of transition (who bears transition costs, who captures the benefits) receive less attention than the aggregate economic gains. The political barriers to implementing the recommended policies, while acknowledged, are treated more briefly than their significance warrants. And the report’s 2018 data has aged in some sectors — renewable energy costs have fallen faster than the report projected, strengthening the economic case further.
Who Should Read This?
Business leaders, policymakers, and economists who need a rigorous, evidenced economic case for climate action — not a moral argument but a financial one that stands on its own terms.
Speed & Scale by John Doerr for the operational investment planning, or The Ministry for the Future by Kim Stanley Robinson for a fictional exploration of what implementing these policies at scale might actually look like.
Climate activists frustrated with economic arguments — understanding the economic case is essential for engaging with the political and business stakeholders who make the decisions that matter, and this report provides the most credible version of that case.
A dense, report-format text that rewards systematic reading but is not designed for linear narrative pleasure. Use the executive summaries and key findings sections to orient yourself before diving into sector chapters.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is The New Climate Economy worth reading?
The New Climate Economy provides the most rigorous economic case for climate action available in accessible form — the evidence that the climate-growth trade-off is false, that bold action creates more economic value than it destroys, and that every year of delay makes the eventual transition more costly. Essential reading for anyone arguing for climate policy in economic terms, and for everyone who has ever been told that climate action is too expensive.
Who should read The New Climate Economy?
Business leaders, policymakers, and economists who need a rigorous, evidenced economic case for climate action — not a moral argument but a financial one that stands on its own terms.
What is The New Climate Economy about in one sentence?
The most persistent argument against aggressive climate action has never been that climate change isn't real — it is that addressing it will destroy economic growth, cost millions of jobs, and make ordinary people poorer.
The Verdict
The New Climate Economy provides the most rigorous economic case for climate action available in accessible form — the evidence that the climate-growth trade-off is false, that bold action creates more economic value than it destroys, and that every year of delay makes the eventual transition more costly. Essential reading for anyone arguing for climate policy in economic terms, and for everyone who has ever been told that climate action is too expensive.
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