If greenhouse gas emissions continue at the current rate, the Earth’s atmosphere will warm up by as much as 2.7 degrees Fahrenheit by 2040, leading to flooded coastlines, intensifying droughts, and human suffering and poverty.

This was the stark conclusion of a landmark report issued in October by the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. To avoid such dire consequences, activists have proposed that the United States embark on what they’re calling a Green New Deal. Most recently New York congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Massachusetts Senator Edward Markey introduced a congressional resolution calling for the implementation of one.

To make sense of it all, we recently sat down with Marc N. Conte, an associate professor of economics whose expertise includes the economics of climate change.