Washington – Some 400 scientists and climate experts expressed support on Monday for a U.S. government proposal to revise a key metric that estimates the damage from carbon dioxide emissions.

The number in question is the social cost of carbon and it represents the dollar value of the climate change harm attributable to a metric ton of carbon dioxide.

It is a way to evaluate the negative economic, labor and health consequences of CO2 emissions, calculated as the difference between the cost of reducing those emissions and the damages prevented by the reductions.