As a back-of-the-envelope exercise, if we took the percentage cost of going carbon neutral in New Zealand by 2050 and applied it to the United States, that would imply a cost of at least $5 trillion in today’s money. Not just once, but every single year. That is higher than the entire current federal spending of $4.5 trillion. And again, under realistic assumptions the amount could be closer to $10 trillion a year.
