and Technology Policy (OSTP) as co-chairs of the IWG, and specifies the membership of the IWG to include the following officials, or their designees: the Secretary of the Treasury; the Secretary of the Interior; the Secretary of Agriculture; the Secretary of Commerce; the Secretary of Health and Human Services; the Secretary of Transportation; the Secretary of Energy; the Chair of the Council on Environmental Quality; the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency; the Assistant to the President and National Climate Advisor; and the Assistant to the President for Economic Policy and Director of the National Economic Council.
E.O. 13990 tasks the reinstated IWG with the following:
- publish an interim update to the SC-GHG (SC-CO2, SC-CH4, and SC-N2O) estimates by February 19, 2021, for agencies to use when monetizing the value of changes in greenhouse gas emissions resulting from regulations and other relevant agency actions until final values are published;
- publish a final update to the SC-GHG estimates by no later than January 2022;
- provide recommendations, by no later than September 1, 2021, regarding areas of decisionmaking, budgeting, and procurement by the Federal Government where the SC-GHG estimates should be applied;
- provide recommendations, by no later than June 1, 2022, regarding a process for reviewing and, as appropriate, updating the SC-GHG estimates to ensure that these estimates are based on the best available economics and science; and
- provide recommendations, to be published with the interim SC-GHG estimates if feasible and by no later than June 1, 2022, to revise methodologies for SC-GHG calculations to the extent that current methodologies do not adequately take account of climate risk, environmental justice, and intergenerational equity.
Finally, the E.O. specifies that in carrying out its activities, the IWG shall consider the recommendations of the National Academies (2017) and other pertinent scientific literature; solicit public comment; engage with the public and stakeholders; seek the advice of ethics experts; and ensure that the SC-GHG estimates reflect the interests of future generations in avoiding threats posed by climate change.
This TSD presents the interim SC-GHG estimates called for in the first of these tasks. It also provides preliminary discussion of how at least one component of SC-GHG estimation, discounting, warrants reconsideration in the more comprehensive update by January 2022 to reflect the advice of the National Academies (2017) and other recent scientific literature.
2The Importance of Accounting for Global Damages
Benefit–cost analyses of U.S. Federal regulations have traditionally focused on the benefits and costs that accrue to individuals that reside within the country’s national boundaries. This is a natural result of the fact that most regulations have a limited impact on individuals residing outside of the United States and do not reflect any other scientific, legal, or other rationale. According to OMB’s Circular A-4 (2003), an
