The National Academies of Sciences issued a a report Today, this puts the full weight of the country’s most respected scientific enterprise behind the science of extreme weather attribution, confirming that the field can reliably link specific disasters to fossil fuel pollution. The three-year review comes as nearly two dozen states and municipalities are suing fossil fuel companies for climate damage, while nearly a dozen states are introducing climate superfinance legislation that would force industry to help pay for climate-related damage. Legal experts say the report could significantly advance both efforts.
Fossil fuel companies aren’t waiting to find out. Congress is Weight of legislationand Several states We’ve already passed laws that will protect oil and gas companies from climate liability entirely – including… Model legislation It was drafted by the American Legislative Exchange Council for adoption by other countries. In response to the report, the Make Polluters Pay campaign issued the following statement.
Statement from Cassidy DePaola, Communications Director for the Make Polluters Pay campaign:
“The National Academies have just given courts, cities, and communities something they have long needed: the full weight of the nation’s most authoritative scientific body behind attribution science. It confirms what researchers and international bodies like the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change have long recognized — that we can say, with real confidence, which extreme weather events are exacerbated by fossil fuel pollution, and how much damage the pollution has caused.”
The fossil fuel industry understands exactly what this means. That’s why they’ve spent years trying to discredit attribution science as a field, and why they and their allies in Congress and state legislatures are now racing to pass liability protection laws. They can’t trump hundreds of peer-reviewed studies backed by the country’s most respected scientific institution, so instead they try to make the law immune to science. They know that this research not only describes a hotter world, but draws a line from their products to specific floods, heatwaves and deaths, and from there to who should pay for the damages.
Attribution science now underpins how cities plan for disasters, how insurance companies price risks, how public health officials prepare for heat deaths, and how courts weigh accountability. The only people who have an interest in pretending otherwise are the people who are being asked to pay for the damage they have caused.”
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