Carbon majors and the scientific case for climate liability

Will it ever be possible to sue anyone for damaging the climate? Twenty years after this question was first posed, we argue that the scientific case for climate liability is closed.
Here we detail the scientific and legal implications of an ‘end-to-end’ attribution that links fossil fuel producers to specific damages from warming. Using scope 1 and 3 emissions data from major fossil fuel companies, peer-reviewed attribution methods and advances in empirical climate economics, we illustrate the trillions in economic losses attributable to the extreme heat caused by emissions from individual companies. Emissions linked to Chevron, the highest-emitting investor-owned company in our data, for example, very likely caused between US$791 billion and $3.6 trillion in heat-related losses over the period 1991–2020, disproportionately harming the tropical regions least culpable for warming. More broadly, we outline a transparent, reproducible and flexible framework that formalizes how end-to-end attribution could inform litigation by assessing whose emissions are responsible and for which harms. Drawing quantitative linkages between individual emitters and particularized harms is now feasible, making science no longer an obstacle to the justiciability of climate liability claims.

Paper (PDF):
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-025-08751-3.epdf

#BP #Gazprom #SaudiAramco #ExxonMobile #Chevron

#ClimateScience
#CarbonMajor
#CO2
#GlobalWarming
#Economy
#ClimateCatastrophe
#ClimateResponsibility
#ClimateLiability
#FossilFuel
#Capitalism
#NeoCapitalism
#ClimateBreakdown
#ClimateComplaint

[New in the blog]

2024

I didn't want to write a review of the year. But on the day before Christmas Eve, a few small thoughts were urging me to write them down. Once started, it grew into a substantial work. Not a list of events, but a general overview. My impressions of the year. As usual, clear, so not for sensitive souls.

#Politics #Greed #Neocapitalism #AI #ClimateProtection #DataProtection #Fascism #Future #EU

https://re-form.eu/en/2024.shtml

#Imbalance only leads to more and more imbalance. It is a self-perpetuating and reinforcing spiral. Man has all the qualities to put a stop to evil. But because it is his creation, he refuses to make the necessary correction.

#Neocapitalism #Profit #Greed #Exploitation #Asocial

It is pointless to analyze what #Harris did wrong in the election campaign. She could not have won with any strategy. Instinct-driven maniacs only choose one of their own kind as their leader. Ethical demands are nowhere to be found here. What is alarming, however, is how large this mass is and how it has been able to grow so much.

#Neocapitalism is destroying our living space and sowing discord among us humans. Driven by #greed, we allow all kinds of evil to happen. The best proof of #stupidity and lack of intelligence.

When I was younger, I loved watching big sporting events on TV. #Olympics (summer/winter), #figure skating (World/European Championships), #swimming (World/European Championships) or even #TourDeFrance. But then #doping increased and when Lance #Armstrong admitted that he had always been doped, my enthusiasm ended forever.

The skinny #TdF winner is said to have achieved these sensational times without any illegal aids? I don't think so.

Now at the Olympics in #Paris, Chinese swimmers who have been convicted of doping are competing. #WADA has not doubted the hair-raising fairy tale of #CHINADA. Probably not to endanger the apanage from #China.

If deception and fraud are the driving force, because the #greed of #neocapitalism is playing out its power games here too, all the rubbish can be thrown away. That would also protect the #environment and #nature.

(And don't tell me that most people don't dope and that it's unfair to them. Then they should name the culprits. But nobody does that because everyone is afraid of being named themselves.)

#Chiquita pays mercenaries to drive people off their land and they don't even shy away from murder. After 17 long years of legal battles, the company is finally sentenced to a fine of millions. But as the inhumane #greed of #neocapitalism dictates, the slave driver and exploiter is unrepentant and appeals. Shabby!

I haven't bought anything from them for many years - at least as far as I can see.

Unfortunately, it doesn't matter how much evidence is produced and in what form it is presented. The majority are not interested in #ClimateChange or even see it as an enemy to be fought against. And the #economy is incapable of change because in #neocapitalism everything is based on exploitation.

Even if it's hopeless, but here's my overview:

#ShowYourStripes

Migratory birds have been heard in the sky over #Rostock for about two weeks. Now in January, however, none should be heard.

The world is falling apart and more and more people are turning to the #fascists in order to continue in exactly the same way. But the system of #neocapitalism is to blame. Without reform, all rescue attempts will fail.

What an employee on an average salary has to work their WHOLE working life for, Jeff #Bezos' slaves generate for their master in 13 minutes. Every hour(!) his account fills up by an incredible 7.9 million dollars.

I'm not talking about a debate about envy, but about the extent of the imbalance produced by #neocapitalism. Urgently needed capital is withdrawn from the market in order to bob around uselessly and further inflate the ego of a disgusting monster. This imbalance harms the entire planet and all life suffers as a result, even if many do not grasp this.

Without their #petroleum, the sheikhs would still be living in tents and wandering nomadically through the desert with their camels. Holding a #climate conference there, the aim of which should be to reduce the consumption of fossil fuels to zero, is absurd in itself. Few places are better suited to express the disinterest of #politics and #economy in the inevitable #ClimateCatastrophe. #Neocapitalism will fight tooth and nail against the exit of its most profitable sources. #COP28 #profit #greed

Paying $2.5 million for a bottle of #whiskey demonstrates the entire #decadence of the system. #Neocapitalism

"Intensive agriculture" ... "monocultures" ... really, I can't hear it anymore. We have long known about their destructive potential, which does not stop the greed for #profit of #neocapitalism from expanding both further and forcing them with the help of poisons and playing God in the genes. If #knowledge is only used negatively, it is useless.

The one-sided, partisan indoctrination by local media that the #Morton case blatantly exposes is frightening. The depth to which #profit and #greed of #neocapitalism has infiltrated the fourth estate should set all alarm bells ringing at maximum level.

Where are the cautionary voices? They will not defile each other, because one crow does not peck out the eyes of another. So are we now completely at the mercy of manipulative control by neoliberal ideologies? We should be worried. But the majority does not care, because they have long since given the thinking into their hands.

#Neocapitalism is tearing the world apart and plunging it into an unimagined dystopia. Meanwhile, #politics is peddling muzzies to stay the disastrous course. Driven by #profitgreed and the growing national fascist tendencies.

People call it #prosperity and #progress, because of course it sounds better than #robbery and #slavery. But the cornerstones of #neocapitalism are destruction, exploitation and oppression. Self-deception, that is whitewashing one's misdeeds, is a necessary side effect.

There are no innocents in #neocapitalism.

State of emergency due to forest fires in #Canada, 30,000 people evacuated.

400 dead in floods in #Congo.

Apparently #politics want to fight overpopulation with their inactivity against #ClimateChange. Can be done and corresponds to #neocapitalism, but contradicts #ProfitGreed and promises of growth. Dead end.

This penetrating drivel about #democracy is enervating. It is a mirage that is artificially and spasmodically maintained with enormous effort.

We live in an economic dictatorship called #neocapitalism, which only cares about total exploitation and maximum #profit. Life as such is irrelevant for this system and therefore worthless.

I always find it cute when organizations keep making ineffective demands.

I do too: I demand the abolition of #greed for profit and #neocapitalism !!! Immediately! Yes indeed!