Big Oil Owes $209 Billion for Climate Reparations Annually

What's the story?

• A study from One Earth found that fossil fuel companies worldwide owe a minimum of $209 billion in climate reparations to compensate the communities affected by their operations.
• BP, Shell, ExxonMobil, Total, and Chevron were among the 21 largest polluters, accountable for an estimated $5.4 trillion in climate-related disasters such as droughts, wildfires, sea level rise, and melting glaciers between 2025 and 2050.
• The study attributes one-third of future climate costs to the global fossil fuel industry.
• Margaretha Wewerinke-Singh, associate professor of sustainability law at the University of Amsterdam, told The Guardian: 

"This evidence and the underlying methodology could provide policymakers and negotiators with a concrete framework for allocating responsibility for climate-related costs to the world's biggest historical polluters."

Who should pay?

• The "polluter pays principle" (PPP) is an economic concept that says whoever creates adverse environmental effects should be responsible for covering the expenses associated with those harms.
• An evidence-based "polluter pays" price tag is seen as a crucial move towards climate justice for communities and countries that have contributed less but are disproportionately affected by climate change.
• Harjeet Singh, head of global political strategy at Climate Action Network International, said of the report: 

"As increasingly devastating storms, floods and sea level rise bring misery to millions of people every day, questions around reparations have come to the fore. This new report puts the numbers on the table – polluters can no longer hide from their crimes against humanity and nature."

• At last year's UN COP27 summit, governments agreed to create a "loss and damage" financing fund which aims to partially compensate vulnerable nations for the economic and non-economic damages caused by extreme weather events.

Should carbon corporations compensate victims of the climate crisis?

-Laura Woods

(Photo credit: Unsplash)