Matters Arising: Spatial correlation in economic analysis of climate change

Abstract

Climate change poses substantial risks to the global economy. Kotz, Levermann and Wenz (Nature, 2024) statistically analyzed economic and climate data, finding significant projected damages until mid-century and a divergence in outcomes between high- and low-emission scenarios thereafter. We find that their analysis underestimates uncertainty owing to large, unaccounted-for spatial correlations on the subnational level, rendering their results statistically insignificant when properly corrected. Thus, their study does not provide the robust empirical evidence needed to inform climate policy.