Tol strikingly shows that grand promises of drastic, immediate carbon cuts – reminiscent of the call for 80% reductions by mid-century that some politicians and lobbyists make – are an incredibly expensive way of doing very little good. All the academic models show that, even if possible, limiting the increase in global temperature to 2oC, as promised by the European Union and the G-8, would cost a phenomenal 12.9% of GDP by the end of the century.