Climate change impacts on the future cost of living

2016 report for the Joseph Rowntree Foundation by Paul Watkiss Associates

Climate change will affect people in the UK unevenly, and there could potentially be strong distributional variations by income and deprivation level. The aim of this report was to explore how climate change could affect the future costs of living in the UK at the household level and the implications for low income households. The study considered a broad range of impacts from climate change on households, focusing on the period up to midcentury (i.e. the 2050s) including:

  • Direct expenditures, e.g. changing temperatures and the impact on household energy‐use;
  • Indirect cost pathways, e.g. additional costs from the effects of flooding;
  • International effects, e.g. climate change affecting global agriculture and thus UK food prices;
  • Policy costs, e.g. from mitigation (greenhouse gas emission reduction) policy;
  • Non‐market costs, which affect people’s quality of life and well‐being (economic welfare).

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Climate Change Impacts on the Future Cost of Living

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