A new study published in Science yesterday calculated that if nearly 15,000 public companies had to pay for the carbon pollution they emit, it would reduce their profits by 44%. For utility companies, damages from pollution are twice their profits, and the authors told the AP the damages, though not calculated in the study itself, would run into the hundreds of billions for US companies, and into the trillions globally. Nevertheless, governments continue to subsidize fossil fuels, with the International Monetary Fund releasing an analysis tallying up $7 trillion in subsidies for the industry in 2022, meaning that even as unprecedented heat waves and simultaneous extreme weather events blow holes in household and public budgets alike, the industry responsible is receiving $13 million from the public every minute. (Subsidies: Bloomberg $, The Guardian, FT $ Damages: AP, Bloomberg $)
