The performance of local, national and global economies is a priority consideration shaping perceptions of climate risk and the costs and benefits of different policy responses to climate change. The most commonly used indicator of performance is GDP . Traditionally, national development efforts have sought to maximise the growth of GDP under the assumption that GDP growth equates not only to economic prosperity  but also to increased efficiency and reduced environmental externalities . Such assumptions often employ models such as the environmental Kuznets curve  that postulates that economic development initially increases environmental impacts, but these trends eventually reverse with continued economic growth. Wealthy nations of the Global North, including for example the USA, Great Britain, Iceland and Japan, have had success over the past decade in reducing their GHG emissions while growing their economies . However, attempts to empirically test EKC in different national contexts has yielded mixed results. Case studies in Myanmar, China and Singapore, for example, suggest that the impacts of GDP on environmental quality are contingent on the development context and the environmental impact under consideration . In addition, an extensive literature now argues that current patterns of development, and the economic systems underpinning that development, are unsustainable , and thus economic growth may not necessarily continue indefinitely in the absence of more concerted effort to pursue sustainable development, including reducing the impacts of climate change.
IPCC
Climate Change 2022: Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability
IPCC Report