—The world is much more valuable than AI

Opinion by Mathew Carr

Oct. 8, 2025 — Mr Chris Wright, President Donald Trump’s energy secretary, is pretending that increasing global climate spending to $5 trillion a year from about $2 trillion now is an overspend.

In an interview with the BBC’s Justin Rowlatt last week, he signalled that spending EU-style on climate action at about $5 trillion a year is like spending the full value of the house to protect [to insure] the house. “If your house was worth $200,000 you wouldn’t pay $200,000 a year to insure,” Wright said.

Yet, if you use basic 101 economics / stock valuations … the earth is worth far more than $5 trillion a year.

With global GDP at $100 trillion (say — let’s round it for simplicity’s sake) …given Trump-like AI, tech, or internet-services valuations …the world has a valuation of more than 10 times its revenue, right?

That’s at least $1,000 trillion or one quadrillion. So spending $5 trillion a year on insurance to protect something that’s worth $1,000 trillion is actually quite a bargain.…if you believe climate spending is like insurance (which is only partly true. Climate spending enhances everyone’s lifestyle). see notes*

That’s one half of 1% of the $1,000 trillion valuation.

And that $1,000 trillion valuation is BEFORE we place pretty much any value at all on climate and nature. Doing that would make the world worth $3,000 trillion at least. (Claude AI gives estimates for earth’s worth ranging from $125 trillion a year to a total of $5,000 trillion, so I’m firmly in that ballpark)

The upshot is that Wright here completely steps on his own foot.

Does he really believe $5 trillion a year of climate action is an overspend? I sincerely doubt it.

Even if a person expresses ambit claims in a global trade and climate negotiation …and Mr Wright is in one, that’s true …it’s wrong to tell a blatant self-serving lie. Especially if you hold a position of high office.

Largely ignored by the mainstream media in the west, climate and trade negotiations are continuing apace.

Wright should resign if he’s not up to dealing with these negotiations in a just manner, or, at least, he should explain his apparent ignorance.

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NOTES

*OpenAI valued at 42 times its revenue this month (FT)….investors at these prices must be bat-shit crazy (not investment advice)

The section of the interview plus my comments published Oct. 3:

JR: Do you have insurance on your home?

CW: Yes, I do.

JR: You do. And you have insurance because you’re worried about the effects of catastrophic risk. Isn’t trying to tackle climate change, a kind of insurance …a prudent way to manage the risks that climate change might pose for future generations [Rowlatt’s best question].

CW: So a great analogy. I love it. But you if your house was worth $200,000 you wouldn’t pay $200,000 a year to insure. You have to have a premium that’s In line with the benefit. And ….you you Carr [weird AI slip] …and by the way, global losses, insured losses from extreme weather events have on a 50 year decline. So yes, I insure my house. Fortunately, as we get a more energized, wealthier society, we build stronger things. The risk of damage to my house is actually on a decline.

[This is the most important part of the interview. Wright is pretending increasing global climate spending to $5 trillion a year from about $2 trillion now (correct) is an overspend. He is saying it is like spending the full value of the house to protect the house. Yet, if you use basic 101 economics …the earth is worth far more than $5 trillion a year. With global GDP at $100 trillion (say — let’s round it for simplicity’s sake …given Trump-like AI, tech, or internet-services valuations …the world has a valuation of more than 10 times its revenue …that’s $1,000 trillion …so spending $5 trillion a year on insurance to protect something that’s worth $1,000 trillion is actually quite a bargain. And that $1,000 trillion valuation is BEFORE we place any value at all on climate and nature …wtf] So …Wright here completely steps on his own foot. Does he really believe $5 trillion a year of climate action is an overspend? I sincerely doubt it.]

JR: Is it because the world’s insurers say they think climate change is one of the biggest risks the world economy faces.

CW: They say that to appease government regulators, look at the actual data of insured losses. It’s just in the numbers. Again, it’s in the bettering human lives 2024 report. It’s the actual numbers, not what people say, but the data.

JR: Come on…And this isn’t just one insurance company. The insurance industry says it’s really worried about the risks of climate change. You know, I’m surprised you’re suggesting that they are not being honest about this fundamental aspect of their business.

CW: Nobody knows the future, but if you want to raise insurance rates, it’s better to talk about fear ahead ….than just look at the data. We don’t know the future. It’s better to look back at the actual data all the way up to today [complete self-serving bulldust …look at the past …Insurance is ALL ABOUT the future. CW IS CORRECT to point out that insurers have been prematurely putting up insurance premium, then plowing profits BACK INTO FOSSIL FUELS — this is one of the biggest outrages of 2025].

CW: People said that 20 years ago, look at what’s actually happened. Insured losses as a percent of GDP in the United States and globally are on a five decade decline [Total cherry picking because most of the world CANT AFFORD INSURANCE because they are struggling to survive ..because of USA-induced climate change].

JR: The numbers I’ve seen show the absolute cost of insured losses going up.

CW: Of course. We’re getting wealthier, and there’s inflation. Of course, there’s more billion dollar disasters. [Here Wright puts Mr Trump in a complete hole, one that I predict will become the end of the Trump administration. Only 0.1% of the global population are getting wealthier {give or take} and MOST OF THOSE ARE AMERICANS …the 99.9% are getting diluted by inflation adn their climate is simultaneously getting screwed …which is related to inflation ….because food prices are up because of …climate change ….GOD BLESS WRIGHT for admitting inflation has been deployed by the wealthy against the people for the benefit of billionaires]

JR: It’s not linear. It’s going up very significantly.

CW: Not when you correct it for the size of the economy, for wealth and inflation. That’s another one of those like misstated things said all the time…