Budgetary Risks of Climate Inaction

Economic policy discussions often focus on the budgetary costs of climate change mitigation and adaptation, while the benefits and potential budgetary costs of inaction are given much less attention. Insufficient climate policies can lead to considerable direct and indirect costs for public budgets. Austria also lacks a comprehensive overview of the potential budgetary costs of inaction for the public sector. Against this background, the policy paper provides a survey of the existing empirical literature for Austria in order to obtain as comprehensive a picture as possible of the budgetary risks associated with inadequate climate policy.