Oil Industry-Linked Group Claims Paris Climate Deal May Cost US Millions of Jobs

Commitments to reduce greenhouse emissions found in the Paris climate agreement could cost the US economy more than 6 million jobs, a study commissioned by an oil-sponsored advocacy group claimed.

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) — The American Council for Capital Formation (ACCF) contracted NERA economic consulting to actual conduct the study. NERA has done similar reports for the American Petroleum Institute.

“Taking into account the loss in employment in other non-manufacturing sectors, the job-equivalents impact for the overall industrial sector could be about 1.1 million job-equivalents in 2025 and 6.5 million in 2040,” the report said on Thursday.

The report also said that reaching the long-term goal of an 80-percent reduction in emissions by 2050 would see the country's GDP reduced by almost $3 trillion.

Earlier on Thursday, the US Chamber of Commerce, who also supported the report, said the Obama administration should have conducted a similar study to understand how impossible it would be to meet Paris climate pledges.

ACCF has received at least $2.3 million from Exxon Mobil and Koch Industries since 1998, according to tax documents and data obtained by Greenpeace and the Union of Concerned Scientists. In July, 2016, Americans United for Action accused ACCF of promoting oil industry policies including opposition to renewable fuels and emissions standards.