It’s not. Projections say that global gdp will shrink 18% by 2050 because of climate change [1].

[1] https://www.swissre.com/media/press-release/nr-20210422-econ...

I think the key part is reminding people that it’ll be worse if we don’t act. The work of adapting won’t be cheap but it’s positive work in the right direction, boosting GDP when it would otherwise be falling chaotically.

That seems mostly to be talking about rising sea levels etc.

I read GP as talking about the positive impact on GDP of rebuilding, and with the intent of pointing out that GDP is a flawed metric.

I forgot about this and had a busy week, but yes you nailed it. The other commenters are also right in pointing out the obvious flaws of GDP with or without meaning to, but you understood the spirit of the comment.

You may want to familiarize yourself with the parable of the broken window.

[0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parable_of_the_broken_window

Not really. It means spending money rebuilding things just to maintain productivity is instead of investing in productivity multipliers.

It’s the difference between going into debt for medical school versus going into debt to pay the high interest your loan shark demands after you ran up gambling debts.