A new study by researchers at Stanford University has estimated that emissions generated in the United States since 1990 have caused more than $10 trillion in global economic damages.
This includes $330 billion worth of negative impact in Brazil and $500 billion in India, as well as $1.4 trillion in Europe.
Around $3 billion, or a third of the overall damage caused by US emissions, fell within the US itself, according to the research, which was published in the journal Nature.
Dollar value
The study, Quantifying climate loss and damage consistent with a social cost of carbon, sought to put a dollar value on the impact of carbon dioxide emitted over time by both countries and major businesses. As it noted, damages tend to be much greater in lower-income parts of the world.
“It turns out US emissions have really hurt US output,” commented lead study author Marshall Burke, professor of environmental social sciences at the Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability.
In terms of major corporate emitters, the study highlights Saudi Aramco, described as ‘the world’s single largest corporate emitter’, the emissions from which (between 1988 and 2015) caused $3 trillion in economic damages, as of 2020. If left unchecked, these damages could rise to $64 trillion by the end of the century.
Gathering interest
The researchers equate greenhouse gas emissions to managing household garbage, which can accumulate over time if not dealt with sufficiently.
“When we generate garbage, it’s illegal to dump it wherever we want, because doing so creates a cost to others,” added study co-author Solomon Hsiang, a professor of environmental social sciences in the Doerr School of Sustainability. “Normally, we pay someone else to take our waste away. Our legacy of greenhouse gas emissions is similar, except we’ve never paid the bill and it just keeps accruing interest.”
As an example, emissions from a single long-haul flight in a year would produce $165 in damages by 2020, but $25,000 in damages between 2021 and 2100. Or, to put it another way, eating one fewer serving of beef per month from 2010 to 2020 would avoid about $1,000 in damages through to 2100.
“Our study shows that because of the compounding impacts of warming on economic growth, the time since the emissions occurred is critical for accurately accounting for the loss and damage associated with past emissions, as well as the cost-benefit analysis of potential solutions,” added study co-author Noah Diffenbaugh, the William Wrigley Professor and Kimmelman Family Senior Fellow in the Doerr School of Sustainability. Read more here.
