Achieving Paris Agreement's promise of net zero by 2050 would cost $36 trillion a year through 2100

VANCOUVER, BC, Nov. 13, 2026 /CNW/ -- Achieving the Paris Agreement's global target of net zero emissions by 2050 would produce global benefits of $6 trillion a year, but it would impose staggering costs of $36 trillion a year through to the end of the century, according to a new series of essays by internationally-recognized climate and environmental analyst Dr. Bjørn Lomborg, published today by the Fraser Institute, an independent, non-partisan Canadian public policy think-tank.

Climate Change: A fact-based assessment of costs, trade-offs, and results is a new multimedia research and educational project by the Fraser Institute in collaboration with Dr. Lomborg's Copenhagen Consensus. It offers Canadians a data-driven analysis of the real risks posed by climate change and measures the substantial costs and trade-offs that accompany many climate policies.

"Achieving net zero emissions by 2050 is not realistic given the marginal benefits gained versus the astronomical costs incurred, which would largely be borne by the world's poorest people," said Elmira Alikabari, director of natural resource policy at the Fraser Institute and coordinator of the project.

The latest essays in the series explore the realities and trade-offs of net zero policies being pursued in Canada and around the world, and also examine why much-hyped climate summits routinely fail to achieve their stated goals.

• Pursuing Net Zero Causes More Harm than Good: Averaged across the century, delivering the Paris climate promises would create benefits worth $6 trillion (in 2023 Canadian dollars) annually, but would impose costs of CA$36 trillion every year. On a per-person level, achieving net-zero would see real benefits worth CA$672 each year, but would cost CA$4,037 for every person on earth. If only high-income countries are included, the cost per-person would be almost CA$28,933 a year.
• Why Climate Summits Keep Failing: In 2021, the world promised to phase out coal, but global coal consumption has only gone up since then. Virtually every summit has promised to cut emissions, but they've increased almost every single year, with fossil fuel emissions reaching a new record high in 2025. The Kyoto Protocol was once sold as a key part of the solution to global warming, yet studies show it achieved virtually nothing for climate change.

"No matter how many lofty climate summits are held, there is no denying that every year over the 21st century, the costs of net zero policies would vastly outweigh the minimal benefits," Aliakbari said.

"Climate policies should be treated like any other policy priority, by weighing the benefits against the costs and choosing policies that achieve the most benefit at the least cost. Net Zero does not pass that test."

To read the essays in the series, explore the data and to learn more, visit www. https://www.fraserinstitute.org/climate-change

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The Fraser Institute is an independent Canadian public policy research and educational organization with offices in Vancouver, Calgary, Toronto, Halifax, and Montreal, and ties to a global network of think-tanks in 87 countries. Its mission is to improve the quality of life for Canadians, their families and future generations by studying, measuring and broadly communicating the effects of government policies, entrepreneurship and choice on their well-being. To protect the Institute's independence, it does not accept grants from governments or contracts for research. Visit www.fraserinstitute.org

SOURCE The Fraser Institute

MEDIA CONTACT: Elmira Aliakbari, Director, Centre for Natural Resource Studies, Fraser Institute, To arrange media interviews or for more information, please contact: Drue MacPherson, Fraser Institute, [phone] ext. 721, [email protected]