Originally published by the Ottawa Citizen.

Canada’s Parliamentary Budget Office just did something important and long overdue. For the first time, the country’s official financial watchdog quantified the costs of climate change for Canada’s economy, showing that worsening climate impacts are a drag on economic growth. This is a crucial step in beginning to reduce the economic risks Canada can expect in a warming world.

There’s still a long way to go, however, and recent moves by Australia and the United Kingdom can point us in the right direction.

Continue reading at OttawaCitizen.com, where this op-ed was originally published.

Don Drummond is an economist at Queen’s University, a C.D. Howe Institute fellow-in-residence and an expert panelist with the Canadian Climate Institute. Sarah Miller is an adaptation research associate with the Canadian Climate Institute.