Some researchers at Dartmouth College.looked at the damage done by extreme heat between 1991 and 2020 and came up with an estimate of damage that comes out to a nice, $28 trillion.
Extreme heat caused by emissions from 111 fossil fuel companies cost an estimated $28 trillion between 1991 and 2020, according to researchers at Dartmouth College.
Their study, which was published Wednesday in “Nature,” presents a peer-reviewed method for tying emissions to specific climate harms. Their goal is to help hold companies liable for the cost of extreme weather, similar to holding the tobacco industry liable for lung cancer cases or pharmaceutical companies liable for the opioid crisis.
The research firm Zero Carbon Analytics counts 68 lawsuits filed globally about climate change damage, with more than half of them in the United States.
“We argue that the scientific case for climate liability is closed,” wrote the study’s authors, Christopher Callahan, who received his PhD from Dartmouth College, and Justin Mankin, a Dartmouth Department of Geography professor.
The top 5 firms and their associated cost figures:
- Saudi Aramco: $2.05 trillion
- Gazprom: $2 trillion
- Chevron: $1.98 trillion
- ExxonMobil: $1.91 trillion
- BP: $1.45 trillion
Article: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/fossil-fuel-companies-emissions-climate-damage-study/
Study: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-025-08751-3.epdf?sharing_token=QStTQ2RGD4WaOVhqoipmxNRgN0jAjWel9jnR3ZoTv0PNVn5qNJQAINIGB8Dl-ZFRseL9v-xVGqFBTn1TeHE_3ueXbo3snVixx3hvsfWgmcaPCnna09SMvt9h8HRBx8EHJnhK9__dORtj8jDr9f7gV6pbSI3Rpd2nqWosrIBEQf8yop43WEjsqAvdxYmuNLEhNkzqbQnrACahtk0jzze_8AMrpu3FX9JNfc7lhka8yYA%3D&tracking_referrer=www.cbsnews.com
Notes:
- it took almost 2 years (!!) to publish the study after it was received – must’ve been a long review….
- the study is not free without the sharing token, and even with that, it may be time limited