{"id":588470,"date":"2023-08-25T13:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-08-25T10:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/worst-corporate-polluters-hide-in-regulatory-darkness-study-finds\/"},"modified":"2023-08-25T13:00:00","modified_gmt":"2023-08-25T10:00:00","slug":"worst-corporate-polluters-hide-in-regulatory-darkness-study-finds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/worst-corporate-polluters-hide-in-regulatory-darkness-study-finds\/","title":{"rendered":"#Worst corporate polluters hide in regulatory \u2018darkness,\u2019 study finds"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/thehill.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2023\/06\/64854868950899.54286136-e1686667463823.jpeg?w=900\" \/><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>Many of the world\u2019s corporations\u00a0may be responsible for\u00a0climate damages far greater than their annual profits, a new study has found.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>For the biggest polluters worldwide \u2014 the fossil fuel-dependent power industry \u2014 that means potential legal liabilities around seven times their annual profits, four economists from leading universities\u00a0<a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/www.science.org\/doi\/10.1126\/science.add6815?adobe_mc=MCMID%3D51954467624435452024141180861551341438%7CMCORGID%3D242B6472541199F70A4C98A6%2540AdobeOrg%7CTS%3D1692900568\">wrote<\/a>\u00a0on Thursday in <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/sciencee\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"5\" title=\"Science\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Science<\/a>.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"ad-unit ad-unit--mr1_ab\"><\/aside>\n<p>\u201cThe average corporate carbon damages [are] economically large,\u201d the economists wrote.<\/p>\n<p>Those climate damages result from a \u201cchoice\u201d on the part of regulators, coauthor Michael Greenstone of the University of Chicago told The HIll.<\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s because the key to bringing those emissions down is forcing firms to disclose them \u2014 and creating penalties for failing to do so, Greenstone said.<\/p>\n<p>While agencies like the Securities and Exchange Commission have proposed making such disclosures mandatory, \u201cto date, that has not been a requirement,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n<p>It has also been politically controversial: The GOP has made a campaign against mandatory climate disclosure\u00a0a key plank of its platform, as The Hill has reported.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0In the absence of rigorous information, the researchers made use of publicly available data based on 15,000 companies\u2019\u00a0voluntary\u00a0disclosures. Then they multiplied those numbers by an estimated \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/social-mediaa\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"1\" title=\"Social Media\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">social<\/a> cost of carbon\u201d \u2014 a metric of the damage done by every ton of greenhouse\u00a0gas\u00a0released into the atmosphere.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"ad-unit ad-unit--mr2_ab\"><\/aside>\n<p>While most firms were responsible for a lot of damage, they write,\u00a0culpability was not equal.<\/p>\n<p>The team found a wide range of climate costs \u201cacross firms, industries, firms within industries, and countries.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0Among \u201ccompanies who are basically doing the same thing, some emitted more than others producing the same product,\u201d a sign that it\u2019s possible \u201cto produce the product without such heavy emissions,\u201d Greenstone said.\u00a0<\/p>\n<aside class=\"ad-unit ad-unit--mr3_ab\"><\/aside>\n<p>In those instances, government regulators could require particularly high-emitting businesses within a given sector to shift their emissions down; investors could choose not to invest in them; or plaintiffs could sue them.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou can reduce emissions through many different channels,\u201d Greenstone said. But mandatory disclosure is \u201cthe foundation of many forms of carbon policy.<\/p>\n<p>Based on the limited data available, researchers concluded that the average firm worldwide could be liable for damages equal to 44 percent of their annual profits.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"ad-unit ad-unit--mr4_ab\"><\/aside>\n<p>That number was a bit lower for U.S. companies \u2014 an average of 18.5 percent of profits.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>But in this case, averages aren\u2019t very helpful because even\u00a0<s>in<\/s>\u00a0the most polluting sectors \u2014 energy, power utilities, transportation and agriculture \u2014 have stark variations in their potential carbon damage.<\/p>\n<p>Worldwide, energy companies in the bottom 10 percent of emitters could have caused carbon damages equivalent to 4.5 percent of their annual profits.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"ad-unit ad-unit--mr5_ab\"><\/aside>\n<p>But global energy companies in the top 90 percent and above could be responsible for carbon damages of nearly four times their annual profits \u2014 or comparatively 100 times as much as those bottom-ranked energy companies.<\/p>\n<p>In the U.S., the 90th percentile polluters in the most carbon-intensive sectors were also responsible for damages in excess of their annual profits.<\/p>\n<p>That meant 234 percent for energy; 178 percent for food, beverages and tobacco; 201 percent for materials, including concrete to petrochemicals; and 342 percent for utilities.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"ad-unit ad-unit--mr6_ab\"><\/aside>\n<p>But there\u2019s one big caveat, the authors note: These numbers are likely significant underestimates because they come almost entirely from disclosures that those companies have made voluntarily \u2014 companies that face \u201cno penalties for misreporting.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis \u2026 underscores the need for mandatory and verified emissions reporting,\u201d they write.<\/p>\n<p>They note that financial markets can\u2019t \u201cdiscipline\u201d high polluters through lower stock prices if they don\u2019t know how many tons of greenhouse gasses those companies release \u2014 a core demand of the environmental, social and governance (ESG) movement.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"ad-unit ad-unit--mr7_ab\"><\/aside>\n<p>Finally, the need to share their emissions \u2014 a source of potential embarrassment and even legal liability \u2014 creates a good incentive for companies for bring them down, they wrote.<\/p>\n<p>While many companies worldwide have net-zero policies, those claims are\u00a0difficult to evaluate against the company\u2019s actual actions.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The economists argue that climate legislation without legal teeth to punish companies that don\u2019t comply, or that mislead investors will struggle to be anything more than \u201cad hoc.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Greenstone cautioned it was \u201cin<a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/download-scripts-themes-apps\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"9\" title=\"Download Scripts &amp; Themes &amp; Apps\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">app<\/a>ropriate and incorrect\u201d to lay all this blame at the feet of the companies themselves. When it comes to parsing out the relative responsibility between companies and consumers, he said, \u201cwe don\u2019t have the data for it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>More to the point, he argued, such blame isn\u2019t necessary: regulatory change is. \u201cCompanies respond to the regulatory and policy playing field,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0\u201cIf there was a carbon price\u00a0of $200 a ton, the companies\u00a0would figure out how to deal with it, they might be painful for them, but they would figure out how to do it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0But right now, he noted, \u201cour national carbon price is effectively zero.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The findings in Science do not specifically focus on the idea of litigation to make companies pay those damages. But their publication comes amid a new wave of litigation against fossil fuel companies and\u00a0the legislatures\u00a0that have reflexively encouraged and subsidized their use<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>Copyright 2023 Nexstar Media Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><strong><span style=\"color: #ff6600;\">If you liked the article, do not forget to share it with your friends. 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