New Scientific Tool Links Specific Fossil Fuel Projects Directly to Climate Damage

New Tool

A newly launched open-source climate tool called the Carbon Impacts Tracer allows scientists to calculate the exact planetary warming and environmental damage caused by specific fossil fuel projects. For years, fossil fuel companies and government agencies relied on the defence that individual project emissions are just a drop in the ocean and impossible to track.

Project Impacts

Attribution science has now advanced to connect carbon emissions directly to eight specific areas of harm, including crop loss, glacier melt, and heatwave deaths. Past research on the Scarborough gas project in Western Australia showed its 876 million tonnes of CO₂ emissions would expose 516,000 extra people to unprecedented heat, cause 484 heat-related deaths in Europe by 2100, and destroy more coral colonies on the Great Barrier Reef.

Accountability

The tool applies a linear relationship where the globe warms about 0.45 degrees Celsius for every trillion tonnes of carbon emitted, based on Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change data. Users can input data for any project, country, or major company like ExxonMobil to generate impact reports. This development arrives after the International Court of Justice found that fossil fuel production and expansion may constitute an internationally wrongful act.

Context

Attribution science uses climate models and observational data to determine how human-induced climate change influences specific extreme weather events or environmental impacts. This field has grown rapidly, shifting climate litigation by helping legal experts and communities connect global greenhouse gas emissions to local harms.