Climate change is a tremendous threat to the United States economy, according to a report released Tuesday by a diverse group led by Henry Paulson Jr., Michael Bloomberg and Tom Steyer, called Risky Business.

The Risky Business Project features Paulson, a Republican who served as Secretary of Treasury under George W. Bush, Bloomberg, an independent and former New York mayor, and Steyer, a big Democratic Party donor and hedge fund billionaire. Other committee members include Robert Rubin, the democrat who served as Secretary of Treasury under Bill Clinton, and George P. Schultz, a Republican who held the same title under Richard Nixon.

"The whole point was to have a bipartisan group who agreed on the nature of the problem, which is that climate change is a huge economic risk," Paulson said, according to Wall Street Journal

The report revealed that within 15 years, increased sea levels, storms and hurricanes could raise annual coastal damage costs from the East Coast to the Gulf of Mexico to $35 billion.

"The risks are more perverse and cruel than we saw with the financial crisis because they accumulate over time," Paulson told reporters Tuesday, according to USA Today.

In addition, extreme heat will reportedly affect daily health and become detrimental to labor efficiency and U.S. electricity grids.

According to Paulson, U.S. businesses must encourage change.

"The good news: If we act immediately we can avert the worse outcomes," he said. "We need to take out an insurance policy. It's that simple."

Meanwhile, Southern and Midwestern farms could see yields decrease over 10 percent during the next five to 25 years thanks to flooding and drought, the report said.

"We cannot afford to waste another minute," Bloomberg said, noting how sea level rise exacerbated the devastation of Hurricane Sandy. "We have to plan for risks. Climate is one of them ... Every city, every company can do something to make a difference."
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Follow Scharon Harding on Twitter: @ScharHar.

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