The consequences of climate change, from floods to fires, often make the headlines but the cost for taxpayers are often overlooked. Taxpayers have already paid hundreds of billions—perhaps more than a trillion dollars—in climate related costs, but specific numbers are often disputed. The primary arguments most cited to challenge quantifications of taxpayer costs are flip sides of the same coin: that there is no direct correlation between climate change and any one storm or incident and therefore costs cannot be quantified; or, that it is impossible to precisely quantify the delta between the increase in climate-related costs and costs that would otherwise occur.

This document is intended to be an introduction to the scale and types of costs federal taxpayers have borne and will continue to bear in the absence of contributions from other responsible parties.

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