If someone should be held to cause the damage caused by climate change, who is who? – Air quality is important
Since time records about the changes in the average temperature of the Earth’s surface began first starting in 1850 and its temporary, the global average surface temperature increased by 2.7 degrees Fahrenheit or 1.5 degrees Celsius. Science supports facts.
What is harder to prove is whether human influences are in the form of clear Amazon rainforest trees or the form of human burning fossil fuels are actually driving or helping drive climate change. If there is a clear correlation, then what if anyone should be held to cause the damage caused by climate change? Tough questions to try to answer. There are many factors to consider.
Well, it turns out that just this morning, I learned that legislation introduced in California was intended to put the largest polluters in the state on a bill that caused physical damage to the golden state climate change. The bill was filed on February 21, 2025.
“A bill to assess the costs of the largest fossil fuel polluters to cover their climate losses in California [Feb. 21, 2025]”Center of Biodiversity [The Center] Announced in a press release. “Polluters paid Caroline Menjivar (D-San Fernando Valley) and Senator Caroline Menjivar (SB 684/AB 1243) of ASM. Dawn Addis (D-San Luis Obispo) will develop a plan under the California Environmental Protection Agency to assess the costs of the largest historic producers of climate heating pollution. This will force these fossil fuel polluters to pay for their increasingly devastating and expensive state damage.
“The bill caused more than $250 billion in damages and killed 29 people after historic wildfires hit Los Angeles. Climate change extended the fire season, causing dryness in the strong Santa Ana wind, overlapping conditions that were prone to occur.
“’La fires show heartbreaking clarity and we need this bill to make the largest climate polluters pay for the astronomical damage it causes,” said Kassie Siegel, director of the Center for the Institute for Climate Law of Biodiversity. “The public should not revoke billions of dollars each year to recover from severe and deadly climate disasters. By passing this common sense bill, state lawmakers can place the financial burden of climate damage in the giant pollution company to which they belong.
So how will this work?
The center in the same version illustrates it.
“Under the bill, the state will calculate climate losses by 2045 and assess compensation costs for fossil fuel producers or refineries responsible for more than 1 billion tons of greenhouse gas pollution from 1990 to 2024. During this period, these costs will be proportional to polluters’ emissions.
“The fees will then enter a new polluter pays the climate fund to compensate for the damage caused by polluters – aggravated cycles of wildfires, floods and droughts, heat waves, superstorms, superstorms and sea level rise while taking advantage of deadly products.
“The fund invests in the future of California, supporting community resilience and strengthening wildfire risks, solar panels and energy storage devices in low-income communities, and helping firefighters and other essential workers to help in the response to climate disasters.
“Fossil fuels account for nearly 90% of all CO2 emissions, with more than 75% of global greenhouse gas emissions.
“A peer review study of polluters’ own self-reported data shows that about two-thirds of artificial carbon dioxide and methane emissions are caused only by the 90 largest fossil fuel producers in the world.”
Skip some, the center in the press release continues to point out that New York and Vermont approved similar legislation last year.
So my question now is: Do you say that similar bills passed in other states have teeth? Do the largest polluters agree to comply with what is set out in these legislative remedies, or will they appeal such measures to the court? This remains to be seen.
Image above and corresponding, connected home page function function: Fire via Wikimedia Commons
– Alan Kandel
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