By Natasha Bulowski
Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
Canada’s National Observer
Major polluters have contributed significantly to the frequency and severity of devastating heat waves over the last two decades, a new study reveals.
The paper, published in Nature, found emissions from 180 fossil fuel and cement companies made 213 major heat waves, including BC’s deadly 2021 heatdome, more intense and likely to occur.
Researchers at ETH Zurich university analyzed emissions from 180 of the world’s largest fossil fuel and cement companies to calculate their contribution to global warming. Collectively, the companies accounted for 60 per cent of humanity’s total cumulative CO2 emissions from 1850 to 2023, the paper found.
Once researchers had the numbers, they calculated how much each company contributed to global warming, and from there, determined how this warming affected the severity of individual heat waves.The research could help force companies to take accountability for their role in climate change-related disasters, Andrew Gage, staff lawyer at West Coast Environmental Law, told Canada’s National Observer in a phone interview.
This is “hugely important” in terms of making the connections between fossil fuel extraction, the responsibility companies have for their products and its significant influence on heat waves around the world, Gage said.
“This type of paper really makes it much more possible to sue for the harm from specific disasters and to point out that these companies were responsible to a large degree,” Gage said.
“And, the authors are very clear that their methodology can potentially be used in the future to draw similar links to wildfires or flooding or other types of climate impacts,” he added.
The paper looked at all heat waves between 2000 and 2023 that were reported to cause significant casualties, economic losses or spur requests for international aid.
Researchers determined the individual contributions of these companies were high enough to enable the occurrence of 16 to 53 heat waves that would have been “virtually impossible in a pre-industrial climate,” the study stated.
Eight fossil fuel producers on the list are headquartered in Canada: ARC Resources, Canadian Natural Resources, Cenovus Energy, Obsidian Energy, Ovintiv, Suncor Energy, Tourmaline Oil and Teck Resources, the latter of which is a mining company that exited the oilsands in 2022.
“For most of them, they enabled 49 to 50 heat waves with their sole contribution, except Tourmaline which stands at 35,” lead author Yann Quilcaille said in an email to Canada’s National Observer, breaking down the Canadian companies’ contributions.
Even though Canadian fossil fuel companies were not the biggest emitters studied, their contributions to global warming “are still sufficient to substantially increase the probability of occurrence of heat waves,” Quilcaille wrote in an email to Canada’s National Observer.
The findings help counter the popular narrative that Canada’s emissions are globally insignificant, Gage added.
“Every additional tonne of carbon dioxide that enters the atmosphere is making us less safe, is threatening communities and livelihoods and lives around the world, including here in Canada,” Gage said.
Climate change made the 2021 heat dome in the Pacific Northwest 2.3 celsius warmer and more than 10,000 more likely, according to Quilcaille’s research.
This paper also opens up the possibility of recovering costs associated with specific weather events from companies that bear a large amount of responsibility, like the price of misting and cooling stations, for example.
“Our healthcare sector has done a tremendous amount of work to prepare for future events like this,” Kaitlin Bloemberg, a registered nurse and member of the Canadian Association of Nurses for the Environment, said in an interview with Canada’s National Observer.
“This has included high quality emergency response plans, coordinating public services, heat warning systems and communication campaigns. And while these are all really necessary and good, the responsibility is taken off the industries, the companies who are actually causing these events.”
This paper could also potentially help Canadians, whose loved ones died as a result of a heat wave or climate disaster, to sue companies that bear large responsibility for the emissions, Gage added. At least one such case is already unfolding in Washington. In May, the daughter of a woman, who died from hyperthermia in Seattle during the 2021 Pacific Northwest heat dome, filed a wrongful death action to hold fossil fuel companies liable.
“There’s no guarantees about how the Canadian courts are going to address this,” Gage said, but this research could help remove a barrier for people to take this legal action.
“You haven’t always been able to say this particular weather event was caused by climate change and that climate change was caused by these products, these operations and products of these companies,” he said.
In Canada, West Coast Environmental Law is urging municipalities to join a proposed class-action lawsuit called “Sue Big Oil” that demands oil companies driving the climate crisis cover the cost of mitigation and adaptation measures. Nelson is the most recent municipality to sign on, making a total of 11 municipalities.
The 2021 heat dome was a mass casualty event; the Chief Coroner of British Columbia reported 619 deaths due to heat exposure.
Bloemberg said she was “disheartened and infuriated” by the paper’s findings because it “so clearly attributes” traumatic events like the BC heatdome to fossil fuel and cement companies, and “we know these events are going to just continue to increase in both severity and in frequency.”
Although all people contribute in some way to climate change, Quilcaille said these companies hold significant responsibility due to their high carbon footprint and use of disinformation and lobbying to slow climate action.
“These companies and corporations have also primarily pursued their economic interests, even though they have known since the 1980s that burning fossil fuels will lead to global warming,” Quillcaille said in the press release.
Next, the researchers behind this paper want to conduct similar studies on other extreme events, such as heavy rainfall, droughts or fires, and trace these events back to the contributions of individual actors and companies.