A new study has revealed that greenhouse gas emissions from the United States have States inflicted damage worth over $1.9 trillion on other countries across the globe.
The analysis, which provides the first measurement of nations’ liability in stoking the climate crisis, highlights the huge volume of planet-heating gases pumped out by the US.
In terms of global damage, the research places the United States ahead of China, Russia, India, and Brazil which were deemed as one of the highest emitters.
But since 1990, these five countries have caused a total of $6tn in losses worldwide by fueling climate breakdown.
According to Chris Callahan, the lead author of the study and a researcher at Dartmouth College, ”It’s not surprising that the US and China are at the top of that list but the numbers really are very stark. For the first time, we can show that a country’s emissions can be traced to specific harm. ”
“In places that are already hot you are seeing it becoming harder to work outside, mortality from the heat is on the rise, it’s harder to grow crops,” said Justin Mankin, a geographer at Dartmouth and co-author of the paper.
”If you layer that on top of which countries have emitted the most you get an almost perfect storm.”
“There is this huge inequity. Countries like the US have disproportionately damaged low-income countries in the global south and disproportionately benefited cooler, higher-income countries in the global north.”
“The chief impediment to claims by one country against another for climate damages isn’t their scientific basis, it’s their legal basis,” said Michael Gerrard, director of the Sabin Center for Climate Change Law at Columbia Law School.
“Countries enjoy sovereign immunity against most kinds of lawsuits unless they have waived it.”
“The costs of climate damages are mounting and ultimately someone will have to pay that cost. The question is who will that be and how it will be done,” said Carroll Muffett, chief executive of the Center for International Environmental Law.
(With inputs from agencies)
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