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New Tool Links Fossil Fuels to Climate Deaths
29 Sep
Summary
- Researchers created a tool to calculate fossil fuel project climate impacts.
- The tool links emissions to global warming and specific human harms.
- A Canadian oil project's emissions could cause thousands of heat-related deaths.
Australian scientists have developed the Carbon Impacts Tracer, a pioneering public tool designed to calculate the climate repercussions of proposed fossil-fuel projects. This online calculator translates a project's projected carbon dioxide emissions into quantifiable impacts on global warming, glacier melt, and potential human fatalities. The tool, which launched recently, utilizes data from environmental assessments to estimate a project's contribution to global temperature increases and subsequent real-world consequences.
Case studies integrated into the tool include five Australian projects, one UK project, and the proposed Bay du Nord offshore oil project in Canada. For Bay du Nord, estimated CO2 emissions over 20 years could lead to a measurable increase in global temperatures, expose many more people to extreme heat, and contribute to heat-related deaths, particularly in Europe. The tracer also projects significant glacier loss and sea-level rise.
Experts suggest this tool could revolutionize climate change accountability by directly tying individual fossil fuel projects to measurable harms, undermining the argument that individual projects are insignificant. It is expected to aid governments, regulators, the public, and potentially insurers and economists in assessing project risks and impacts, and may strengthen climate litigation efforts by removing the 'drop-in-the-ocean' defense for emissions.
